Ants deck Wozniacki’s title hopes

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI was hit by a plague of flying ants before crashing out to a barrage from Ekaterina Makarova.

The No.2 seed and reigning Australian Open champion crashed out 6-4 1-6 7-5 on Court One to extend a poor record at Wimbledon.

But Dane Wozniacki, 27, was distracted by an invasion of thousands of insects that saw her calling for repellent spray after the first set. But there were no flies on Russian left-hander Makarova, 30, who shrugged off the infestation to power into the third round.

With spots of rain briefly falling, Wozniacki also tried to get the match halted at 4-1 down in the decider but was waved away by the referee.

She battled back from 5-1 down to level at 5-5 and saved five match points but it was world No.35 Makarova who toppled the highest seed to go out so far.

Wozniacki, who has never got past the fourth round at Wimbledon, said: “It’s frustrating because I feel like I could have gone and done something really great here.

“At the end of the first set I just asked if they had some insect repellent. There were a lot of them at one point, then all of a sudden it kind of died down.”

Makarova, ranked world No.1 in doubles, said: “I was getting really nervous but I stayed aggressive and told myself ‘you will not lose’.”

Serena Williams has seen five of the top 10 seeds go out and she cruised past Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova 6-1 6-4 in 66 minutes on Centre Court.