Former world No1 Victoria Azarenka became the highest profile casualty in the ladies’ draw at Wimbledon as the Belarusian stumbled 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to Serbia’s world No45 Bojana Jovanovski.
The No8 seed hit 46 winners but still could not stop an aggressive Jovanovski, who was on a six-match losing streak coming into the tournament.
Azarenka, who was playing just her third match coming back from a foot injury, was down 1-4 in the final set but fought back to draw level.
She was up 40-0 serving at 5-6 but Jovanovski won five points in a row to break and book a spot in the third round for the first time in five appearances at Wimbledon.
The two-time major champion rued her missed opportunities (she converted just three of 16 break points) and admits she has a lot of work to do.
“She played well. I don’t want to take credit away from her. But I always look at what I did, I don’t care what the other person has done. I just looked at the board and not converting 16 break points is ridiculous to me,” said Azarenka. “I’m p***ed off right now for not taking those opportunities and it’s okay to be like that. I have to be honest with what is in front of me.”
Earlier in the day, two ex-Wimbledon champions won their matches to set up a mouth-watering third round clash – 2011 winner Petra Kvitova and five-time champion Venus Williams.
Kvitova hammered Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-2, 6-0 while Williams, who is making her 17th appearance at the All England Club, took out Japan’s Kurumi Nara 7-6(4), 6-1 to reach the third round of a major for the first time since the 2013 Australian Open.
