Two-time champion Kvitova blames her nerves as she crashes out

Petra Kvitova, one of the favourites, made a shock early exit, losing in three sets to the impressive unseeded Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

The first set was hard fought, with games going to numerous deuces. Kvitova threw away three break points at 3-2, and it would prove significant as Belarusian Sasnovich broke her in the next game, snatching the lead and eventually winning the set.

Two-time Wimbledon champion and eighth seed Kvitova fought back to even things up in the second set, but fell apart in the decider, failing to even make it on to the scoreboard, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.

Kvitova, who won a warm-up grass-court event in Birmingham last month, was surprisingly upbeat afterwards. “The nerves were there again, I just tried to kind of fight with myself – probably the biggest opponent which I have,” she said. “When I was younger, I played better on the grand slams than the other tournaments. Now is the time when I’m playing better on the other tournaments than the grand slams. Probably I wanted [it] too much again. I just made a joke that probably I going to skip the grand slams for the next years.”

Elsewhere, Angelique Kerber won the battle of the former Wimbledon finalists by beating Vera Zvonareva in straight sets.

Zvonareva, 33, launched a surprise comeback last year after spending a year away from the tour and had to come through the qualifiers to book her place in the draw, but Kerber would prove too strong an opponent.

Former world No2 Zvonareva recovered from going a break and 3-0 down to the German in the first set to even things up at 5-5, but she lost it 7-5. The second began exactly as the first, but this time Kerber did not let Zvonareva claw back and cruised to victory, 7-5, 6-3.

Afterwards, Kerber said: “She had really a lot of experience, she played here the final one year. She’s a good player, especially on grass. I had to be really focusing from the first point, because she knows how to play good, especially in important moments.”

“It was not so easy, also because it was a little bit windy out there. I had a few up-and-down games. At the end I think it was a good match.”

Earlier in the day, Dominika Cibulkova put her seeding snub behind her by coming through a firstset tie-break to beat France’s Alize Cornet in straight sets, 7-6, 6-1. She will face Johanna Konta in the next round tomorrow.

Meanwhile, world No 1 Simona Halep came off the back of her debut grand-slam win at Roland Garros to win in clinical fashion against Kurumi Nara of Japan, 6-2, 6-4.