In the biggest upset of Wimbledon 2016 so far, World No. 2 Garbine Muguruza crashed out of the tournament following a 6-3 6-2 annihilation from 124th-ranked qualifier Jana Cepelova.
Muguruza, who won her maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open last month, was one of the overwhelming favourites to triumph at the All England Club. But, the Spaniard was outplayed by her Slovak nemesis in all departments en route the 58-minute second round battle.
Cepelova has earned herself the tag of “giant-killer” over the years, having recorded the prized scalp of top-ranked Serena Williams (Charleston, 2014) before stunning the erstwhile No. 3 Simona Halep at the last year’s Championships here.
Cepelova produced a flawless blend of power and astuteness as she raced to a 3-0 lead in the opening set. At 4-1, she broke Muguruza’s service game again before the latter staged a mini comeback. She, however, consolidated her serve at 5-3 to take the opening set.
Carrying on the momentum in the second, Cepelova broke Muguruza on two consecutive occasions to race to a 4-0 lead and never looked back from then on. The miniscule-looking Slovak swung hard all around the grass to accumulate an aggregate of 14 winners while her opponent committed as many as 22 unforced errors.
“I’m so happy, I played really well and I think I deserve to win today. I didn’t expect this. Last year I beat Simona Halep on this court and I have great memories,” the 23-year-old was quoted as saying by Wimbledon.com.
Up next, Cepelova is scheduled to cross the swords with 28th seed Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic.
Elsewhere, it turned out to be a smooth day for the seeds in the ladies’ draw. The likes of No. 4 seed Angelique Kerber, Simona Halep (5), Belinda Bencic (7), Venus Williams (8), Madison Keys (9), and Timea Bacsinszky (11) all emerged victorious.
