Wimbledon 2016: Ana Ivanovic crashes out in first round for only the second time in her career

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.