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Wimbledon: Women’s third seed Simona Halep crashes out to world 106

Last year’s finalist Eugenie Bouchard also fell at the first hurdle in SW19

Slovakia’s Jana Cepelova reacts after winning her women’s singles first round match against Romania’s Simona Halep on day two of the 2015 Wimbledon Championships. Photo: Justin Tallis/Getty Images

Tue Jun 30 2015 - 18:39

Third seed Simona Halep became the highest-profile casualty in the women’s event when she was dumped out in the first round 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 by Jana Cepelova of Slovakia, the world No106. Cepelova had won just one Tour-level match in 2015 before Wimbledon and won just three games on the only other time she’d faced Halep but turned the match around with some gutsy, consistent play to reach the second round.

A painful-looking blister on the middle toe of her left foot didn’t help, especially on her serve, which coughed up seven double faults. But Halep, a semi-finalist here last year, was also guilty of making too many unforced errors, 34 in all, as her usually consistent groundstroke game broke down. It was her earliest exit in more than two years.

The 22-year-old Cepelova beat world No1 Serena Williams in 2014 but this would go down as the most important victory of her career. “It is of course better because it’s Wimbledon, a grand slam,”she said. “Simona’s a very good player but today was my day.”

In a match of 15 breaks of serve, Halep looked to be in command when she won the first set, serving it out after taking an injury time out for the blister. But Cepelova continued to attack the Romanian’s second serve and she broke again to level the match. Halep broke in the first game of the decider but Cepelova won the next four games and then, when serving for the match at 5-3, came from 0-40 down, clinching victory when Halep splayed another forehand wide.

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Bouchard slump continues

Eugenie Bouchard was knocked out in the first round at Wimbledon as one of the biggest stars of the grand slam 12 months ago became the first big-name casualty of this year’s tournament.

Canadian Bouchard marched through to the 2014 final, where Petra Kvitova denied her the title, but has endured a terrible season on tour and the Wimbledon exit adds to her troubles.

She lost 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 to China’s Duan Ying-Ying on Court Three, sealing her own fate by cracking a forehand into the net.

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