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.