First-round action continued at the grass courts of Wimbledon on Tuesday. When play was done and dusted, the results saw a top seed fall and a champion soar.

Defending Champion Impresses

An interesting dynamic comes into play when a competitor has earned the title of defending champion at a major championship. Expectations rise, and the old cliché “you get everyone’s best shot” certainly becomes relevant. Petra Kvitova has been down this road before and may not have handled the pressure of defending her 2011 Wimbledon title as well as she had hoped. However, her experience following her first title may pay dividends this time.

If Tuesday’s result is any indication, there are no jitters this time for the Czech, who destroyed Kiki  Bertens 6-1 6-0 in just 35 minutes. Overpowering Bertens with huge groundstrokes while constructing points flawlessly, Kvitova appeared to have picked up where she left off against Eugenie Bouchard in the 2014 final. To underscore her dominance in this performance, the second-seed won 48 of the 61 points in the match.

Kvitova embraced the Centre Court atmosphere afterwards. “It's great to be back on Centre Court and unbelievable to see all the people clapping”, she said.

Bouchard Continues to Slump

Confidence plays a large factor in sports, and for Eugenie Bouchard, maintaining hers has appeared to be difficult while navigating through a trying season in 2015. On Tuesday, she returned to the tournament where just one year ago she validated her status as one of the best with a run to the final. But the venue that was a comfort zone in 2014 was not so kind this season as the Canadian fell to Ying-Ying Duan 7-6 6-4.

It was a difficult serving day for the world No. 12, who double-faulted 10 times and only placed 55 percent of her first serves in play. Her lack of success serving led to three breaks for Duan, which inevitably was one of the differences in the match.

For the second consecutive Grand Slam event, Bouchard failed to advance past the first round. Meanwhile, an already difficult year became increasingly worse heading into London as she was forced to nurse an abdominal injury.

Afterwards, the 21-year-old acknowledged that that the injury was a factor. “I felt very unprepared for this match, but I wanted to play no matter what. After Eastbourne we did testing, and I've got a grade two tear in my abs. It was probably not smart to play here, but I couldn't pass on Wimbledon,” she said. “I was taped and it felt okay, and I was trying not to think about it, but I haven't practiced that much, so I felt my timing was very off. I'm going to take some time to heal and maybe not think about tennis for a little bit and then get back to it.”

The Canadian will continue to slide down the rankings with her early exit. She fell well short of defending the slew of points gained a year ago in London.

Halep Upset

Elsewhere, third-seeded Simona Halep, who made a run to the semifinals last year, fell to Jana Cepelova of Slovakia 5-7 6-4 6-3. After dropping the first set, Cepelova found her rhythm in the second set and carried it through to complete her comeback. Benefiting from an uncharacteristic 34 unforced errors by the Romanian, Cepelova found confidence that appeared to grow throughout the match. Although both players struggled holding serve, it was the Slovak who broke Halep late in the decisive set to push her through to the second round.

It was another early exit for Halep, who fell in the second round at Roland Garros this spring. She admitted that perhaps she needed a break. “It's difficult to keep going the good results, to feel good every tournament, every year in row,” Halep said. “I did it for two years already. I had good results. And this year, in the beginning I had good results as well. But in the middle, I was a little bit maybe tired mentally and maybe that's why I lost on clay season,” she said. “I have enough power to go ahead and think about what I need to do better. I need a holiday, and for sure I will get it.”