Thursday 26 / December / 2024
London: World No. 83 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro scripted a seismic upset on Centre Court of Wimbledon, toppling defending champion Marketa Vondrousova 6-4, 6-2 on Tuesday.
In a match that lasted for one hour and seven minutes, the reigning champion was defeated in straight sets (4-6, 2-6) by the unseeded Bouzas Maneiro.
After falling to Spain's Bouzas Maneiro, Vondrousova--who had become the first unseeded woman to win the event the previous year--received a significantly less flattering honour.
Bouzas Maneiro, who celebrated her historic victory by holding her serve, hit the air in celebration of her first Grand Slam main draw victory.
At Wimbledon, No. 6 seed Vondrousova lost in the opening round, making history as the first defending champion to lose in the first round in precisely 30 years.
The previous instance occurred in 1994, when Stefanie Graf, a three-time defending champion, was upset in the first round by former Top 10 player Lori McNeil.
This is by far Bouzas Maneiro's greatest career victory according to rating at the age of 21. It was Tuesday that Bouzas Maneiro defeated his first-ever Top 40 opponent. She had, in fact, never faced a player ranked in the top ten before, losing to Jelena Ostapenko in Madrid in April when playing at home.
Meanwhile, the 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina started her 2024 campaign in London with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph against qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the first round on Tuesday.
The World No.4 needed just one hour and 11 minutes to hold off Romania's Ruse.
Ruse breezed through qualifying and went on to win the WTA singles title in Hamburg in 2021. She is currently rated as high as World No. 51. Ruse, 26, won all three of her qualification matches without dropping a set. Against Rybakina, she got out to a strong start, leading 3-1 right away.
However, Rybakina stormed through the following five games to take a one-set lead after she reached her top performance in the closed Court No. 1. Rybakina was a perfect 13-for-13 on her first serve points in the opening set, despite trailing early.
In the second set, Rybakina maintained her momentum and swept to a 4-0 lead. Ruse went down and clutched her left knee after Rybakina's forehand winner sealed the match, but the Romanian rallied to win the following game and avoid the bagel.
But Rybakina successfully converted a return winner to earn her second match point. Rybakina, the leading ace of this year, increased her 2024 total to 270 on Tuesday with three more aces. With 210 aces in 2024, Karolina Pliskova is in second place and well behind her.
