Second seed Garbine Muguruza, bidding to add the Wimbledon crown to her French Open title, was sensationally beaten in the second round yesterday by Slovakian qualifier Jana Cepelova 6-3 6-2 in the shock of the tournament so far.
Spaniard Muguruza, who lost to Serena Williams in last year’s final, had been one of the favourites for the title but looked lacklustre, getting only 42 percent of first serves in and struggling with the accuracy of her baseline powershots.
She had laboured in the first round against Italy’s Camila Giorgi, winning through in three sets, but had not lost against a player ranked outside the top 100 since last year.
However, Cepelova, ranked 124th, brought all the pedigree that helped her down then world number three Simona Halep in the first round last year to Court One, racing through the match in 59 minutes.
Muguruza’s defeat removed one of the biggest challengers to Serena Williams’s title defence and the American’s bid to equal Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 grand slams.
Cepelova said: “I’m so happy. I played really well and I think I deserved to win.
“I’m really surprised. I didn’t expect to win these two sets.
“Last year I beat Halep on this court and I have great memories. I’m so happy, so happy.
“I have beaten some great players and I’m very satisfied with this.”
A time violation warning, a few spots of rain and the thunderous groundstrokes of her rival could not throw Venus Williams off her long-limbed stride as she reached the Wimbledon third round with a 7-5 4-6 6-3 win over Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari.
Playing an opponent who was not even aged five when she won the first of her seven grand slam titles at Wimbledon in 2000, the 36-year-old Williams proved that it would take more than sheer determination to topple the American at her favourite tournament with a fighting performance.
Andy Murray produced the kind of imperious form that has propelled him into two grand slam finals this year as he beat Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-3 6-2 6-1.
Lu, the son of a chicken farmer, ruffled a few feathers on Centre Court when he jumped out to a 2-0 lead before extending it to 3-1 in the opening set. However, once Murray had levelled for 3-3, it did not take him long to clip his rival’s wings.
From 3-2 up in the second set, Murray won seven games on the trot as Lu struggled to find a way to keep pace with Murray’s potent groundstrokes.
A Lu double fault on match point allowed Murray to hurry off court for a royal audience with the Duchess of Cornwall.
Ninth seed Marin Cilic is through, clipping Sergiy Stakhovsky’s wings in four sets, while the fifth-ranked Kei Nishikori recovered from losing the first set to Julien Benneteau to win 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-2.
Milos Raonic had to make do without his grasscourt guru John McEnroe but managed just fine as he overpowered Italy’s Andreas Seppi 7-6(5) 6-4 6-2 to reach the third round yesterday.
Fastest serve
The sixth seed equalled the fastest serve seen at Wimbledon this year, firing down one 142mph rocket to match the delivery served by Australian Sam Groth in round one.
The fastest serve ever recorded at the All England Club was hit at 148mph by American Taylor Dent six years ago.
His second serve was not much slower either as the former semi-finalist produced an impressive show of force.
McEnroe, hired by Raonic to fine-tune his grasscourt game, was not there to witness it, however, as he had TV commentating commitments.
Amongst those to finish their last-64 clashes yesterday were the 11th-ranked David Goffin, winning in three sets against Edouard Roger-Vasselin, and Great Britain’s Dan Evans who beat Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 6-1.
Croatian serve machine Ivo Karlovic was dumped out by Lukas Lacko, the Slovakian qualifier.
The 23rd seed boomed down 34 aces but Lacko hit three times as many winners as him to get the job done 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-4.
Sam Querrey also eased past Thomaz Bellucci for the loss of nine games, while Roberto Bautista Agut got a walkover when Mikhail Kukushkin withdrew injured.
Bautista Agut is now the highest-ranked Spaniard in the draw after David Ferrer was knocked out by Nicolas Mahut 6-1 6-4 6-3.