British number one Heather Watson defeated 32nd seed Caroline Garcia in three sets to make it to round two, but the big story of the day was Simona Halep's early exit.

Watson was due on court yesterday, but with Lleyton Hewitt and Jarkko Nieminen playing five long sets, her match was pushed back to today, though it clearly didn't affect her. Whilst fellow Brit Laura Robson struggled in SW19 this afternoon, Watson powered through, saving match points before going on to win 1-6 6-3 8-6. This sets up a second round clash with Daniela Hantuchova, with the reward for victory in that match likely to be a third round meeting with none other than Serena Williams.

As for Halep, despite her having seemingly the easiest draw of the seeds this year, she crashed out today in three sets, losing 7-5 6-4 6-3 to Jana Cepelova. The world number three was a dark horse in the running for the title this year, but has certainly under-whelmed and will be looking to make amends in the final Grand Slam of the year in August. 

The results

Starting in order though, all players in the bottom half of the draw were in action today. The first section of this half saw all four seeds progress, Caroline Wozniacki, Camila Giorgi, Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber the quartet in question. The latter was particularly impressive, double bagelling her fellow German opponent Carina Witthoeft in just 44 minutes.

In the second round, Wozniacki will play Denisa Allertova, who beat fellow Czech Katerina Siniakova in three sets, Giorgi will face Lara Arruabarrena of Spain, Muguruza is up against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, another winner in three sets, whilst Kerber plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, whose match today also went the distance.

Section six saw three of their four seeds make it through, Halep the aforementioned victim of an upset this year. Promising teenager Timea Bacsinszky will face a contrasting player in round two, one with plenty of experience, Silvia Soler Espinosa, Sabine Liscki plays the American Christina McHale, Svetlana Kuznetsova is part of an all Czech clash with Kristyna Pliskova, whilst Halep's conqueror Cepelova plays another Romanian in Monica Niculescu.

Halep wasn't the only seed to crash out today though, with Eugenie Bouchard a seed with perhaps a less surprising early exit as her decline continues - the Canadian losing 7-6 6-4 to Chinese qualifier Duan Yingying today.

Tatjana Maria will play Duan in round two, after beating Bojana Jovanovski in straight sets today, but their potential third round opponent will not be decided until tomorrow, with the matches between Madison Keys and Stefanie Vogele and Yanina Wickmayer and Elizaveta Kulichkova having to be suspended tonight, with them to resume tomorrow. Both matches were tied at a set a piece, with the third set on serve.

Also in this section, Alize Cornet progressed in straight sets against Ana Konjuh and will face Belarusian qualifier Olga Govortsova in round two, whilst eighth seed Ekaterina Makarova faces Magdalena Rybarikova in the second round. Rybarikova will feel she has something to prove after making it through due to Karin Knapp's retirement from their match, though she was 7-6 3-0 up when this happened.

The final handful of games also saw all four seeds progress, whilst Britain's Robson crashed out. She was in action against Evegeniya Rodina of Russia and, whilst she showed glimpses of her potential and plenty of encouraging signs, her match fitness was lacking and her opponent was able to win in straight sets, both courtesy of a single break, the scoreline reading 6-4 6-4.

She will play 28th seed Jelena Jankovic in round two, whilst the winner of that encounter will play either Kurumi Nara or reigning champion Petra Kvitova in the third round. Nara meets Kvitova due to her first round opponent, Magda Linette, withdrawing with an injury, the scores tied at 6-3 3-6 with the third set on serve when she made the decision.

Nara will feel she has something to prove in the next round as a result, but with Kvitova blazing past her first round opponent Kiki Bertens in 35 minutes, winning 6-1 6-0, the Japanese player will have problems doing so.

Round three

Tomorrow sees Serena Williams take to centre court to face Timea Babos, after Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori play their respective matches, whilst Watson is second on the number one court, playing Hantuchova. Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams will play on the number two court, against Richel Hogenkamp and Yulia Putintseva respectively.

Matches to watch include an all American clash between Sloane Stephens, who knocked out 27th seed Barbora Strycova, and Lauren Davis, as well as Bethanie Mattek-Sands' meeting with seventh seed Ana Ivanovic, the former having used her momentum from qualifying to defeat promising youngster Alison Van Uytvanck, who was a quarter-finalist earlier this month in the French Open.