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A crestfallen Ajla Tomljanovic reckons her second-round loss to Russia's Varvara Gracheva felt like the end of the world after her brilliant French Open start.

Downcast Ajla Tomljanovic reckons her surprise French Open exit following one of the finest wins of her career feels like the 'end of the world'.

Australia's No.1 was practically inconsolable after losing 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 in a remarkably tight second-round clash with young Russian Varvara Gracheva on Wednesday.

She had been on a high after defeating No.5 seed Anett Kontaveit on Monday, but deflation quickly followed as she condemned her performance as being simply not good enough.

"This loss definitely overshadows the good win for me," she said.

Looking dejected, she was asked if losing this grand slam opportunity felt like the end of the world because she'd been in such good form beforehand, and replied simply: "Yes.

"We have a grand slam four times a year and this is where you want to do your best, especially after a win like the one I had on Monday.

"I came into the match even more confident in my mind than I did against Anett. Against her, I had a really bad warm up and felt I wasn't there with my game.

"Today was the kind of opposite; I felt everything was smooth but I was flat and didn't play as well as I wanted to - and she played a great match."

The 21-year-old Gracheva had also come through 7-5 in the final set in a similar see-saw duel with another Australian Astra Sharma in Sunday's opening round.

In tough, blustery conditions, the young Aussie slayer again proved her toughness against the 29-year-old Tomljanovic, who had stood within two points of victory in tough-to-call two-hour 41 minute contest.

But not for the first time, she couldn't close out the victory, a grievous disappointment for Tomljanovic at the event where she first announced herself by reaching the last-16 as a young Croatian tyro in 2014.

A few of her old frailties seemed to show up in the end game of this battle of wills as two final weak netted backhands sealed her fate.

Tomljanovic reckoned that on a miserable day like this, she would text her Florida neighbour and old mentor, the great Chris Evert, for comfort and advice.

"I'll probably turn to her for sure just because I can't do anything in person right now.

"But it'll probably be a text, not a phone call because when it's this bad, I just like to be alone. What is there to say?"