Marketa Vondrousova fell to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of Wimbledon on Tuesday. In doing so, Vondrousova became the first Wimbledon women’s defending champion to lose in the opening round since 1994. That year saw Steffi Graf fall at the hands of Lori McNeil after winning Wimbledon in 1993.
Vondrousova won the 2023 edition of Wimbledon as she became the first unseeded woman to achieve that feat at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club.
Vondrousova becomes only the second woman to ever lose in the first round of Wimbledon the year after winning the Grand Slam tournament.
While Vondrousova was unseeded in 2023, she entered this year’s Wimbledon as the No. 6 seed. She had fallen during a tournament in Berlin last month, and that could’ve contributed to her straight-set loss. In fact, she double-faulted on three occasions in the very first game of her match against Maneiro.
Vondrousova ended up with seven double-faults and 28 unforced errors on the day. Meanwhile, Maneiro was participating in a Grand Slam tournament for just the second time in her career.
The 2023 Wimbledon triumph was the only Grand Slam title for Vondrousova in her career thus far. She also was the runner-up at the French Open in 2019 and earned a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
