There can be few things in tennis more embarrassing than being beaten in the first round of a grand slam tournament while ranked No.1 in the world.
It is a painful memory that is still fresh in Angelique Kerber’s mind, having suffered that misfortune at the French Open five weeks ago.
It is a fate that has befallen only two women at Wimbledon in the professional era – fellow German Steffi Graf in 1994 and Martina Hingis in 1999 and 2001.
But such has been the woeful form of Kerber, many pundits feared she might be heading for a Paris-London first-round exit double on Tuesday – a day when she had been handed the honour of opening Centre Court proceedings in the absence of title holder Serena Williams.
Luckily for her she proved the naysayers wrong with her 6-4 6-4 win over American qualifier Irina Falconi.
However, the manner of her win against an opponent who had never won a match at Wimbledon in four previous visits and is ranked 247th, would have done little to quell the belief that Kerber is unlikely to repeat her spectacular 2016 run when she finished runner-up to Williams.
“Playing first rounds in grand slams are always tough, especially with (the memory of) my first-round match that I lost in Paris,” Kerber said.
“I was actually just thinking about point-by-point, trying to finding my rhythm during the whole match,” added the German who produced 13 unforced errors and only eight winners in a below-par opening set against Falconi.
A season after being the toast of the tennis world by winning two grand slam titles and finishing runner up to Williams at the All England Club, the 29-year-old admitted that life at the top had not been an easy ride.
“There is much more expectation, much more pressure, from me, from outside, from everything,” she said.
“It’s easier to go there than to stay there.”
Kerber isn’t the only player who has struggled with putting the weight of expectation behind her, in fact she was joined on the day two winner’s list by 2015 Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza, who has experienced similar issues.
In contrast, the 23-year-old Spaniard cruised to victory over Russian world No.75 Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2 6-4 in bang on an hour.
On a day where the women’s top seeds thrived they were joined in the second round by third seed Karolina Pliskova.
The Czech blasted nine aces in her 6-1 6-3 win over Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina in an ominous display of power tennis.
They were joined in the second round by ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 24th seed Coco Vadeweghe and 29th seed Daria Kasatkina.
The upset of the day went to the only Australian in the second round.
Arina Rodionova, ranked 166 in the world shocked Russian 16th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 9-7, staving off several match points in the process.
