Wimbledon 2016: Ana Ivanovic crashes out in first round for only the second time in her career
Russian qualifier and world No.233 Ekaterina Alexandrova ended Serb No.23's SW19 campaign on day one, winning 6-2 7-5
ANA IVANOVIC crashed out in the first round of Wimbledon for only the second time in her career against Russian qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova on day one at SW19.
Serb ace Ivanovic, 28, got off to a bad start, losing the first set of her tournament curtain-raiser against the world No223 - she later said an injured wrist was partly to blame.
Ivanovic - the No23 seed at the All England club - dropped her serve in the fifth and seventh game of the contest to hand the advantage to Alexandrova, who took the opening set 6-2.
After the defeat, she said: "It was very tough. I mean, since two weeks I struggle with my right wrist.
"It was very hard to accelerate on my forehand.
"I tried to do everything possible to be fit and recover and tape it and so on.
"It was a little bit sore. I feel like it caused me a lot of miss‑hits."
Ivanovic, who has seen boyfriend Bastian Schweinsteiger progress to the Euro 2016 quarter-final with Germany, was quick to compliment her opponent's excellent performance.
"My forehand was hard to control her fast shots.
"I thought she played really well and served very good.
"Especially in the first set, she was not missing many first serves.";
And the 21-year-old Russian continued her superb, power-hitting form into the second set, breaking hot-favourite Ivanovic in the third game to take a 2-1 lead.
However, the former world No1 was not going away that easily, showing her class to instantly break back to level the second set at two games apiece.
In what was quickly becoming a real see-saw affair, Russian qualifier Alexandrova incredibly broke AGAIN to take a 3-2 lead - before this time consolidating the break to go 4-2 up on Court 12.
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Yet, as nerves began to creep in, so did the errors for the Russian, as Ivanovic broke yet again in a phenomenally unpredictable second set.
Both players held serve for 5-5, before the No23 seed threw her serve away, leaving her Russian opponent the task of serving for the match.
And she did so comprehensively, winning it with an ace down the middle, to wrap up a 6-2 7-5 victory.
Prior to the 2016 tournament, Ivanovic had only once lost her first game at Wimbledon, back in 2010 when she lost to Israeli 13th seed Shahar Pe'er.
In fact, the Serbian has really struggled on the hallowed SW19 turf in recent years, failing to get past the fourth round since 2007, when she was a losing semi-finalist.
But if she's going to stem the tide at Wimbledon, she'll have to wait another year as the unfancied Alexandrova marches on to the second round.