Maria Sharapova became the latest high-profile casualty of the Wimbledon first round when she lost 6-7(3) 7-6(3) 6-4 to compatriot Vitalia Diatchenko.
The 2004 champion has not played since she reached the French Open quarter-final a month ago and she did not look match-sharp.
However, Sharapova has always been a competitor and she battled her way to 6-6 in the first set before taking it on the tie-break.
The older Russian then played aggressively to open up a 5-2 lead in the second set. Then things started to go wrong for her, as she allowed Diatchenko to break back and then lost the second tie-break of the match.
Two hours and 20 minutes into the match, the decider began. And eight games and four breaks later, the players still could not be separated.
The World No.132 held to lead 5-4 and force Sharapova to serve to stay in the contest. She could not manage it, and fatigue seemed to get the better of her as she hit a double fault on match point.
Garcia loses to Bencic at Wimbledon
Caroline Garcia, the sixth seed, also made an early exit from the All England Club after suffering a 7-6(2) 6-3 defeat at the hands of Belinda Bencic.
It is not a particularly surprising loss when you consider that, in February 2016, the Swiss player was the World No.7. Since then suffered a series of injuries, but she has worked her way back up to 56 in the rankings.
And Bencic showed all the poise she displayed in her initial rise to prominence to overcome an out-of-sorts Garcia in relatively comfortable fashion.
The only other seed who went out of in the Ladies’ Singles on day two was Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She lost 6-4 4-6 6-3 by Su-Wei Hsieh.
Halep, Kerber and Ostapenko advance
Many seeds progressed with ease. French Open champion and World No.1 Simona Halep brushed aside Kurumi Nara 6-2 6-4. Meanwhile, 11th seed Angelique Kerber beat Vera Zvonareva 7-5 6-3.
12th seed Jelena Ostapenko took out Katy Dunne 6-3 7-6. 17th seed Ashleigh Barty beat Stefanie Voegele 7-5 6-3. And 15th seed Elise Mertens took out Danielle Collins 6-3 6-2.
The two exciting young finalists from Indian Wells also advanced. 14th seed Daria Kasatkina eased past Jana Fett 6-2 7-5 and 18th seed. And Naomi Osaka swatted aside Monica Niculescu 6-4 6-1.
