Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova beaten by player who had never won on grass before

What a difference a year makes. Twelve months on from triumphing on the hallowed Centre Court turf in balmy temperatures, Marketa Vondrousova struggled to shake off the pressure that came with being a defending Wimbledon champion.

The defence of her title ended in a whimper on a grey day with rain pattering Wimbledon’s main showcourt, where she suffered a shock first-round exit under the roof to Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro.

In one of the biggest upsets at the All England Club in recent memory, the Czech No 6 seed, who memorably won her first major as an unseeded player last year, was stunned by the fiery Spaniard – a player ranked 83rd in the world who had never won a match at a major, let alone on grass.

Vondrousova’s 6-4, 6-2 defeat could hardly have been more jarring to the jubilant scenes she experienced last summer, when she triumphed over Ons Jabeur to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish.

At the time, Vondrousova, who has a number of tattoos over both of her arms, vowed to get a new inked design to celebrate her win, which remains the biggest triumph of her career. There will be no rushed visit to the tattoo artist this time round after her brief 67-minute appearance at this year’s championship.

Her premature exit means there will be a different women’s singles champion for a seventh consecutive year, with the 25-year-old joining an unwanted list of reigning champions who have become first-round casualties.

Not since Lori McNeil defeated three-time defending champion Steffi Graf in 1994 has a player managed to topple a defending female champion in the opening round of Wimbledon. In 2003, Lleyton Hewitt also fell victim in the first round, having triumphed the year before, in the most recent instance of the three times it has happened in across the men’s and women’s game.

Vondrousova’s preparation for her title defence had been far from ideal, having suffered a nasty slip at last month’s Berlin Open which forced her to retire from her second-round match.

Vondrousova: ‘I’m going to be back stronger – I hope’

While her movement around the court at times appeared laboured, the Vondrousova played down suggestions that her fitness had been a contributing factor towards her shock loss, instead putting it down to pre-match jitters given there was a target on her back.

“Practice was fine and everything,” she said. “I was a bit scared because of my leg, too, but I don’t think that was the reason. I felt nervous from the start. Credit to her. I’m going to be back stronger, I hope.”

Despite reaching the quarter-finals at this year’s French Open – which was her best performance at Roland Garros since 2019 – Vondrousova is yet to come close to the lofty heights she reached last summer. In the end, she found the tag of being a reigning champion somewhat overwhelming.

“Even if you don’t want to think about it, you just think about it,” she said. “I don’t know, all the time here. I see posters here and everything, my name [is] everywhere. It was [an] amazing feeling to go back on the Centre Court. The match was very tough. Now it’s like, mixed feelings. I love to be here. I would have loved to stay longer.”

Bouzas Maneiro preyed on Vondrousova’s vulnerabilities from start to finish. The Czech’s serve was wobbly – she endured three double-faults in her opening service game – and it was a shadow of the trusted weapon that propelled her to her crown last summer.

She was broken by Bouzas Maneiro early in the first and second sets, as the industrious 21-year-old spent large chunks of the match teasing unforced errors out of her – 28 in total.

There was no let up from Bouzas Maneiro, who had a spring in her step and sealed her stunning triumph with a sizzling backhand before raising her hands to her head in disbelief. “I am really happy, I think this is one of the most important moments in my life, in my career,” said the woman from Galicia. “This is the most beautiful tournament I have played in my life so thank you to everyone who came to watch the match today.”