WIMBLEDON, England — Qinwen Zheng became the second top-five seed to lose in the first round at Wimbledon on Tuesday when the Olympic gold medalist fell to Katerina Siniakova 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.
The 22-year-old Chinese player was the No. 5 seed at the All England Club and her loss came hours after third-seeded Jessica Pegula was upset by Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
It was Zheng’s third straight first-round exit at Wimbledon. Siniakova, meanwhile, will face four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the second round.
Siniakova is a three-time doubles champion at the All England Club, including winning last year alongside Taylor Townsend. She has won 10 major doubles titles overall.
In other matches, Barbora Krejcikova needed to rally against 56th-ranked Alexandra Eala to avoid becoming the second consecutive Wimbledon women’s champion to lose in the first round a year later.
Krejcikova, the 17th seed, won 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 at Centre Court.
She started slowly, making 19 unforced errors in the first set, but she cleaned up her play and had a total of 18 the rest of the way, often leaning forward with a clenched fist and a yell to celebrate points that moved her closer to the win.
From the start of the Open era in 1968, only two reigning women’s champs have been defeated in the first round at Wimbledon: Steffi Graf in 1994 and Marketa Vondrousova last year.
Eala, a 20-year-old left-hander representing the Philippines, was competing at a Grand Slam tournament for only the second time after losing in the first round at the French Open in May. She was seeking what would have been her fourth top-20 victory of 2025 after ousting Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek at the Miami Open earlier this year.
After finding out just a few hours before that she would be in the main draw as a lucky loser, Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko upset 25th seeded Magdalena Frech 6-3, 6-2.
The eighth-seeded Swiake, a five-time Grand Slam champion, faced a tight opening set against Polina Kudermetova but won 7-5, 6-1.
Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva advanced, with the seventh seed rolling to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Mayar Sherif.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
