Tuesday 30 June 2015 20:55, UK
Wimbledon 2014 runner-up Eugenie Bouchard and third-seeded Romanian Simona Halep were both dumped out in the first round of this year's championship.
Bouchard was dumped out 7-6 6-4 in the first round by Chinese qualifier Duan Ying-Ying while Halep was knocked out against Jana Cepelova of Slovakia 5-7 6-4 6-3.
Canadian Bouchard enchanted the crowd as one of the stars of last year's tournament before losing in the final to Petra Kvitova, but has struggled for form since March, falling in the first round of the French Open before picking up an abdominal injury at Eastbourne earlier this month.
She committed 10 double-faults and 23 unforced errors against Duan, who had previously never beaten a player inside the world top 75.
It has been a miserable run for the 21-year-old who since reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January she has suffered eight first-round defeats.
Bouchard let slip a 2-0 lead in the opening set and after clawing back a 3-0 deficit in the first-set tiebreaker she capitulated with a catalogue of unforced errors.
World no 117 Duan stayed cool when she served for the match at 5-4 in the second set with the Wimbledon debutant forcing Bouchard into a forehand error to seal victory.
Halep reached the semi-finals 12 months ago, just a month after finishing runner-up at the French Open.
The 22-year-old Cepelova, ranked 106 in the world, had won only one match on the tour all year before Tuesday and now goes on to face another Romanian, Monica Niculescu, for a place in the last 32.
"I knew it would be a difficult tournament for me," Halep said, explaining that her confidence was low because of poor recent results. "But I didn't expect to lose in (the) first round."
Ruthless mood
Defending champion Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber were in ruthless mood as they both made it through to the second round at Wimbledon.
Kvitova won all but one point on her own serve in seeing off Kiki Bertens 6-1 6-0 as she started the defence of her title in a 35-minute Centre Court stroll.
The Czech player was dominant from the start, making the most of every error her Dutch opponent made as well as being dominant in her service games.
Two breaks were enough to secure the first set and three more put her 5-0 up in the second, Kvitova coming out to start the final game having won all 24 points on service.
But the first point of the game saw Kvitova serve a double-fault to the groans of a packed crowd who were braving temperatures over 90 degrees. She bounce backed to see the game out and set up a clash with Kurumi Nara of Japan, who was leading 3-6 6-4 4-3 when Polish opponent Magda Linette retired from their first-round match.
Kerber, seeded 10, needed only 45 minutes to cruise past German compatriot Carina Witthoeft 6-0 6-0 on Court 18, where temperatures were already nudging 85 degrees by the time their match started at 11.30am.
She dominated all phases of the match, taking six of her 12 break points, while Witthoeft wasted the three she secured, including one in the final game as she looked to avoid the dreaded 'double bagel'.
There had not been a 6-0 6-0 win in the ladies' singles at Wimbledon for six years, but there have been three in the first two days of the 2015 tournament with Venus Williams and Andrea Petkovic winning on Monday without losing a game.
Kerber was delighted with her win but felt a little sorry for Witthoeft, as she said: "Carina was playing not bad, actually. The games were not like 40-love. It was very close, actually.
"It's always tough to play against a German. It's always not easy. I'm very happy about my performance in the first round. I'm feeling good on grass, and I've always played well on it. Two weeks ago I won my first title on grass, so it's always good to come with a title to the tournament and to a grand slam."
Kerber will next face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who was taken to three stamina-sapping sets by Germany's Mona Barthel before winning 6-7 7-6 6-2.
