Wimbledon 2018: Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova the latest big names to suffer early exits

The Czech was beaten 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in the first round by Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the world No 50

Petra Kvitova was seen by many as the favourite to win the title here for the third time, but nerves got the better of the 28-year-old Czech on Tuesday as she was beaten 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in the first round by Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the world No 50.

Given her experience and all the difficulties she has overcome in her career you might have expected that big-match nerves would be the last problem to trouble the two-times Wimbledon champion, but Kvitova looked ill at ease from the start.

Having recovered so well from the terrible hand injuries she suffered in a knife attack at her home in the Czech Republic 19 months ago, Kvitova had enjoyed an excellent start to 2018. She has won five tournaments this year and her grass-court game looked in excellent shape when she won the title in Edgbaston last month.

Although she pulled out of last week’s Nature Valley International at Eastbourne with a hamstring injury, it was clear on this occasion that her problems were mental rather than physical. Her face often looked drawn and her movement was lethargic.

Kvitova said afterwards that she had been too nervous. “I just tried to fight with myself,” she said. “I was probably my biggest opponent.”

Sasnovich, a 24-year-old from Belarus, played with a confidence that belied her world ranking. She varied her strokes, mixing in some clever drop shots with some pounding ground strokes, and rarely showed any signs of nerves.

Having won the first set with something to spare, Sasnovich faltered only at the end of the second. Serving at 4-5, she hit two double faults and then missed a forehand on set point.

It seemed that Kvitova might have got over her crisis, but Sasnovich kept piling on the pressure in the deciding set. While the Belarusian struck the ball consistently, Kvitova made too many mistakes. By the end she had made 36 unforced errors.

Sasnovich closed out victory in appropriate style with two successive aces. “It was a good match but I can play better as well,” she said afterwards.

Kvitova said she had felt good until the start of the tournament. “Just today I was pretty tight,” she said. “It’s all just down to nerves. It's nothing to do with any physical kind of movement, of the body or anything. It's just the tightness in my body.

“I didn't really have a clear mind. I was thinking a little bit too much. Of course, my hand is not moving as easily as it used to, so I was tight. I didn't move that well either.

The Czech admitted that nerves got the better of her (AFP/Getty Images)

“I was just trying to wait, hoping that everything would settle down. That happened in the second set, but it came back again, and she was on the board after that. I couldn't really do anything about that. I just let her play.

“I wasn’t playing that aggressively. I wasn’t really hitting the ball to a good length either. I couldn’t really swing the racket as well as I wanted to.

“She’s the kind of player who moves well around the court and gets everything back. She has a good backhand. I didn't really put pressure on her, so she could just do whatever she wanted. She hit some great drop shots as well.”

Kvitova added: “I probably wanted it too much again. I joked just now that I’m probably going to skip the Grand Slams in future. When I was younger, I played better at the Grand Slams than at the other tournaments. Now I play better at the other tournaments rather than the Grand Slams.”

Did she feel the same at other Grand Slam tournaments? “Probably at Wimbledon it's a little bit more than the other Grand Slams because obviously I know I can play well here. Yes, I think it's the worst one.”

Nevertheless, Kvitova said she did not want to get down on herself given that she is so pleased just to be playing again following the horrific knife attack on her. “I’ve already won the biggest match of my life and career,” she said.

Elsewhere, Angelique Kerber beat Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-3 in a meeting between two players who have lost to Serena Williams in finals here. Kerber lost to the American in 2016, while Zvonareva, who came through qualifying last week, was beaten by her in 2010. This was Zvonareva’s first Grand Slam tournament for three years after she got married and had a child.

British wild card Katie Boulter secured a first Wimbledon victory to join Kyle Edmund and Johanna Konta in reaching round two.

Boulter is through to the second round of Wimbledon (Getty Images)

The 21-year-old from Leicester battled past Paraguayan Veronica Cepede Royg in three sets on a packed Court 14.

Boulter won the first set and after securing an early break served for the match, only to be pegged back.

But she showed impressive resilience in the decisive third set, clinching the all-important break for 5-4 before serving out for a 6-4 5-7 6-4 win.

Another former champion suffered a surprising defeat as Maria Sharapova, competing here for the first time since 2015, was beaten 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 by her fellow Russian, 27-year-old Vitalia Diatchenko, after a roller-coaster match that lasted more than three hours.

Sharapova, who had never previously lost in the first round at Wimbledon, led 5-2 in the second set and 4-3 with a break in the third, but Diatchenko kept fighting back. Diatchenko, who is the world No 132, had lost in the first round on both her previous appearances here and had only ever won two Grand Slam matches before facing Sharapova.

The world No 1, Simona Halep, playing her first match since winning her first Grand Slam title at the French Open last month, needed only 78 minutes to beat Japan’s Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-4. Halep reached the semi-finals here in 2014 but was beaten by Johanna Konta in last year’s quarter-finals.