Wimbledon 2024: 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova loses in opening round

Marketa Vondrousova lost 6-4, 6-2 to Jessica Bouzas Manero in the first round of Wimbledon on Tuesday. In doing so, Vondrousova became the first Wimbledon women’s defending champion to lose in the first round since 1994. That year Steffi Graf lost to Lori McNeil after winning Wimbledon in 1993.

Vondrousova won the 2023 edition of Wimbledon as she became the first unseeded woman to achieve the feat at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

Vondrousova became the second woman to lose in the first round of Wimbledon a year after winning a Grand Slam tournament.

Vondrousova was unseeded in 2023, but this year she entered Wimbledon as the No. 6 seed. She fell during a tournament in Berlin last month and that may have contributed to her straight-sets defeat. In fact, she double-faulted three times in the first game of her match against Maneiro.

Vondrousova committed seven double-faults and 28 unforced errors on the day. Maneiro, meanwhile, was participating in a Grand Slam tournament for only the second time in her career.

The 2023 Wimbledon victory was the only Grand Slam title of Vondrousova’s career so far. She was also the runner-up at the French Open in 2019 and won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.