Wimbledon 2018: Caroline Wozniacki heads home early but Serena Williams marches on

Wozniacki's exit means half of the top 10 seeds have already been dumped out in the opening two rounds

Caroline Wozniacki may have finally ended her long wait for a Grand Slam title, but success here at Wimbledon continues to elude her. The 27-year-old Dane, who claimed her first Grand Slam title at the 43rd attempt when she won the Australian Open title in January, suffered the latest in a long list of disappointments at the All England Club when she was beaten 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 in the second round on Wednesday by Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.

Wozniacki, who won the grass-court tournament at Eastbourne for the second time last week, is a former junior champion at Wimbledon, but in her 12 appearances in the main draw here she has never gone beyond the fourth round.

The world No 2’s latest defeat came at the hands of an opponent who went for her shots from the start. Wozniacki saved three match points in the closing stages, but Makarova kept faith with her attacking game.

The world No 35 is a big hitter who has claimed plenty of major scalps over the years. The 30-year-old Russian, who is ranked No 1 in doubles, has beaten Petra Kvitova, Garbine Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska here in recent years.

Wozniacki said that she would have expected to beat 90 per cent of the players in this year’s draw and felt she would have had a good chance against the remaining 10 per cent, but could not find the answers against an opponent who kept “hitting a lot of lines” and made “a lot of crazy shots that were going in”.

She added: “I did everything I could. I fought as hard as I could. I can’t even be mad at myself because I played up to the level that I can. I think she played above her level and really raised it, got a little lucky and played well when she needed to.

“Today I played someone who played extremely well, but I don’t know whether she would be able to keep up this level for the rest of the tournament.”

Some players prefer to practise in the week before a Grand Slam tournament, but Wozniacki thought she had been “100 per cent” right to play in last week’s Nature Valley International at Eastbourne.

“I played really well,” Wozniacki said of her week in Sussex. “I got the practice that I needed. The weather was great. The conditions were great. It’s a great tournament. I feel great. My body feels great.

“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t have played there. The fact that I played an opponent today that went all in, everything was going her way, sometimes it happens in tennis. I still almost found a way to turn it around.

“It’s frustrating because I feel like I could have gone and done something really great here. For her to keep this level, I would be very surprised if you saw her go far. But with someone playing like this today, I really did what I could. It just wasn’t enough.”

Williams eased her way into the third round of Wimbledon (Getty)

Karolina Pliskova is another player whose Wimbledon record belies her grass-court ability, but the big-serving Czech finally made it past the second round when she beat Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-3. A contest between two former world No 1s always looked likely to go Pliskova’s way once Azarenka dropped serve in the third game.

Pliskova, a former champion on grass at both Nottingham and Eastbourne, had fallen at the second hurdle here five times. “I was pretty solid today,” she said after securing a second-round meeting with Mihaela Buzarnescu. “I was really strong on my serve, which was really important.”

Serena Williams eased into the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 victory in just 66 minutes over the Bulgarian qualifier, Viktoriya Tomova. “It was better than my first round and I’m happy that I’m going in the right direction,” Williams said after taking her winning streak at the All England Club to 16 matches.

Williams’ sister, Venus, recovered from a slow start to beat another qualifier, Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1. “It’s just about winning a match,” the five-times champion said afterwards. “Whether it’s your best or not doesn’t matter.”