Marketa Vondrousova
Vondrousova unexpectedly won Wimbledon last year. En route to the final, she beat Jessica Pegula and Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. She then beat Ons Jabeur in the final to win her first career TSB.
The Czech’s preparations for her title defence went awry as she suffered an injury at the ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin. She fell in her quarter-final match against Anna Kalinskaya and was forced to withdraw. However, she managed to recover for Wimbledon. Vondrousova faced world number 83 Jessica Buzas Maneiro in her first match, a match that everyone predicted she would win. The Spaniard had other ideas and beat the defending champion 6-4, 6-2 in a huge upset.
Although Vondrousova’s chances of successfully defending her title were slim, no one thought she would be eliminated from the tournament so early. She is in good shape and has already reached the quarter-finals of Roland Garros.
Vondrousova became the second reigning Wimbledon champion to lose in the first round in the Open era. Laurie McNeil’s victory over Steffi Graf at the start of Wimbledon 1994 marked the first time a defending champion had reached the first round.
Andrei Rublev
Rublev performed very well in the first two months of the season, during which he won the title in Hong Kong and reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. But then he had a bad streak after being disqualified in Dubai, which lasted until he won the Madrid Open.
The Russian crashed out of Roland Garros in the third round and started the grass-court season with a first-round exit in Halle. Rublev was expected to have a decent performance at Wimbledon, and Andrei was set to face world No. 122 Francisco Comesana, who was making his Grand Slam debut, in the first round.
As a result, the Russian lost the match 4-6, 7-5, 2-6, 6-7. It was a missed opportunity for Rublev as he could have gone far thanks to the draw. Interestingly, after Wimbledon, Rublev immediately lost another one in Båstad and now he has 3 consecutive defeats.
Jessica Pegula
After missing the clay court season due to injury, Pegula returned to the WTA Tour to compete on grass. After being eliminated in the second round of the Libema Open, she won her first grass court title in Berlin. Britain’s Emma Raducanu then eliminated her in the second round of the Rothesay International.
Pegula reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year and was expected to perform well given her grass court results.
The American started well, making easy work of Ashlyn Kruger in the first round, beating her 6-2, 6-0. But then the 30-year-old met Wang Xinyu in the second round and lost the match 4-6, 7-6, 6-1.
Vyacheslav Gorbachev, Athletistic
Source: Sport

I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.