Computer and Zhang say no to shaky Wozniacki but No 3 seed Pliskova stumbles on

Another day at the All England Club, another slew of seeds in trouble in the women’s draw,

Caroline Wozniacki, the Australian Open champion of 2018 and the No 14 seed in SW19, kicked off the day of jitters and jolts, losing to a combination of Zhang Shuai and a dodgy Hawk-eye machine 6-4, 6-2.

The Dane, pictured, had been 4-0 to the good in the first set until her Chinese opponent ran away with the next six games. But it was the stuttering Hawk-eye that was driving Wozniacki to distraction. Even if the umpire and the line judge saw the ball land in, the computer stubbornly and repeatedly said “no”. It was out. The umpire even admitted that he would have the machine fixed for the next match but that did not help Wozniacki’s case.

“That’s what he said: for the next match,” she said. “Well, I don’t have a next match.”

And with that, she was off.

Karolina Pliskova, the champion of Eastbourne last week and the No 3 seed here, had a scare, dropping a set against the unpredictable and unorthodox Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei. She did win 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the end but it took the best part of two hours to get the job done.

Hsieh plays double-fistedon both flanks, which is hard enough to read at the best of times. But coupled with the fact that Hsieh has no idea what she intends to do with the ball until the second it leaves her racket strings and she becomes every player’s nightmare opponent.

“She can make you feel ugly, which I felt at some points,” Pliskova said. “Sometimes I don’t think she even knows what she’s going to play. You have to be ready for everything.”

She was and will be again when she faces Karolina Muchova on Monday. Muchova, the world No 68 from the Czech Republic, upended Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit, seeded No 20, 7-6, 6-3.

The Czech arrived on court with her leg swathed in bandages, left the court mid-match for more treatment on the wounded limb (the physio obviously needed to tighten the bolts to stop the leg from dropping off entirely) and then came back to win. But she may need more than a bandage to help her in the fourth round: she only won five games when she last met Pliskova at the Australian Open in January.