French tennis player Harmony Tan has been criticised by her doubles partner Tamara Korpatsch for withdrawing from their opening match at Wimbledon.

The pair had been due to play Raluca Olaru and Nadiia Kichenok on Court 5 today, but it was announced a thigh injury had forced Tan to withdraw.

The 24-year-old stunned Serena Williams on Centre Court in the singles tournament last night, winning an epic 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 battle.

Lasting three hours and ten minutes, the encounter clearly took its toll on Tan, who faces Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo in the second round tomorrow.

But Korpatsch took issue with Tan’s last minute withdrawal from the doubles tournament, posting two quite remarkable statements on Instagram about the situation.

“Unfortunately my Doubles Partner H. Tan retired from our doubles today,” she wrote. “She just texted me this morning. Let me wait here 1 hour before the match start. I'm very sad, disappointed and also very angry that I can't play my 1st Doubles Grand Slam.

“And It's really not fair for me 😒I didn’t deserve that. She asked me before the tournament if we wanna play doubles and I said yes, I didn’t ask her, she asked me!

“If you're broken after a 3h Match the day before, you can't play professional. That's my opinion.”

Korpatsch reiterated her message in another statement on her Instagram Story, claiming she had once played a match that lasted six hours and 33 minutes and still contested a singles match the next day.

Tan, who has not yet publicly responded to Korpatsch’s statement, showed remarkable resilience to overcome Williams yesterday.

The 40-year-old had made her return to the tennis court after an injury-enforced year-long break from the sport, and subsequently looked rusty and error prone at times.

But Williams’s renowned will-power saw her recover from going one set down, before saving a match point in the 12th game of the decider.

She could not prevent Tan from triumphing in the tiebreak, however.

“When I saw the draw, I was really scared,” said Tan afterwards. “Because it’s Serena Williams, she’s a legend. I was like, ‘oh my God. How can I play?’

“If I could win one game, or two games, it’s really good for me.”