This year will forever go down as a great one in the career of Caroline Wozniacki, the Dane who became a grand slam champion for the first time in Melbourne in January. Her memories of Wimbledon, however, will be all too brief after she was upended 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 in the second round by Ekaterina Makarova, a Russian who has made a career out of giant-killing.

Makarova had already beaten Wozniacki at a slam, having done so in the second round of last year’s US Open. She did it again on Wednesday, despite a rollercoaster of a final set in which she led 5-1, was hauled back to 5-5 and finally got over the line on her sixth match point, sending Wozniacki the same way as Petra Kvitova, Maria Sharapova and Sloane Stephens, all beaten in the first round.

The 30-year-old left-hander has beaten Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Agnieszka Radwanska and Angelique Kerber in grand slams. A former top 10 player now ranked 35, the Russian went for broke throughout and it worked, much to Wozniacki’s disappointment and disbelief.

“It’s frustrating because I feel like I could have gone and done something really great here,” said Wozniacki, who won the warm-up event in Eastbourne. “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.”

Wozniacki’s defeat means it is the first time that five or more of the top eight seeds have gone out of the women’s event here before the third round. The strength in depth of the WTA Tour these days means very few matches are foregone conclusions but Makarova is just about the last name any of the top-ranked players want to see in their section.

The first set was all Makarova to 5-1 and though Wozniacki rallied to 5-4, the Russian held on to take it. Amid an invasion of flying ants on Court No 1, Wozniacki was rattled but hit back to take the second, only to find herself 5-1 down in the decider. At the Australian Open this year, Wozniacki escaped from the same score against Jana Fett and when she saved four match points on her way back to 5-5, another miraculous escape looked likely.

Katie Swan sinks to heavy Wimbledon defeat by Mihaela Buzarnescu Read more

But Makarova reset, held serve and, after Wozniacki saved two more match points, finally clinched victory on her sixth match point, sending a backhand drive volley into the open court.

“I was really nervous because Caroline will never miss and you need to win the points, play the winners,” said Makarova, who now plays Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. “I knew that and I think I was a little hurried because I thought I needed to be more aggressive. But I am so happy that I got calm at 5-5 and did my work again. I told myself, no, you’re not going to lose this match, with all those match points. I told myself that, I forgot it and started over.”

Sign up to The Recap, our weekly email of editors’ picks.

Venus Williams, the five-time champion still going strong at 38, looked in trouble when she dropped the first set to Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania. The American recovered strongly, though, to win 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 and set up a clash with Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands.

The No 10 seed, Madison Keys, the runner-up at last year’s US Open and a semi-finalist at the French Open last month, continues to impress, after a 6-4, 6-3 win over Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand sending her through to a meeting with Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina.