London, July 2 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain pulled off a huge upset on Centre Court of Wimbledon on Tuesday, toppling the women's defending champion Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in straight sets in their first-round showdown. Playing in only the third Grand Slam main draw of her career, World No.83 Bouzas Maneiro earned her first Grand Slam main draw victory by ousting Vondrousova 6-4, 6-2 in just 67 minutes.
The Spaniard converted all five of her break points to complete the feat.
No.6 seed Vondrousova became only the second defending champion to lose in the first round of Wimbledon in the Open Era. The other time it happened at Wimbledon was 30 years ago when former Top 10 player Lori McNeil defeated three-time defending champion Stefanie Graf in the 1994 opening round.
This is by far her biggest career win by ranking for 21-year-old Bouzas Maneiro. She had never defeated a Top 40 player before Tuesday. She had only played a Top 10 player once before when she lost to Jelena Ostapenko on home soil in Madrid in April.
However, the Spaniard has served notice over the past 12 months that she is one to watch. Bouzas Maneiro won her first WTA 125 title at Antalya in early April of this year, and she made her Top 100 debut just a week later. She has halved her ranking since being No.167 a year ago.
Bouzas Maneiro had already played Wimbledon once before, when she successfully qualified for the main draw last year, making her Grand Slam main-draw debut. There were early signs that things might not go exactly to form under the closed roof of Centre Court when Vondrousova fired three double faults in her opening service game. Bouzas Maneiro's backhand was solid in the opener, and a love hold at 5-4 put the Spaniard a set away from the upset.
Strong returning gave Bouzas Maneiro a break for 2-1 in the second set, and the unseeded player started to take control for good when she slammed a backhand winner down the line to consolidate for 3-1. Bouzas Maneiro dominated with crosscourt forehands to break again for 5-2, and she quickly powered to double match point when serving for the match. One final backhand winner wrapped up her first grass-court win in a tour-level main draw.
She won 77 per cent of her first-serve points in the clash. Vondrousova had six more winners than Bouzas Maneiro, but the Czech was undone by 28 unforced errors, doubling Bouzas Maneiro's 14. Now, an all-Spanish clash is set in the second round, where Bouzas Maneiro will face her compatriot Cristina Bucsa. World No.64 Bucsa saved a match point and squeaked past Ana Bogdan of Romania 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(10-5) on Tuesday.
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