TENNIS in DEPTH.

Sam Stosur crashed out of Wimbledon at the first hurdle in a straight-sets defeat by Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi.

World number six Stosur, 26, a runner-up in the French Open final in May, went out 6-4 6-4 to a player ranked 74 places below her in the world.

It looked like Stosur might survive when she saved three match points to hold her serve at 5-3 in the second.

But Kanepi saved break points in the next before holding on for victory.

Stosur’s shock early loss follows the departure of the woman who beat in Paris last month, Francesca Schiavone – making this the first Championships in which both Roland Garros finalists have gone out in the first round.

Fifth-seeded Italian Schiavone remains the biggest casualty in the women’s draw so far after losing in three sets to Russian Vera Dushevina on Monday.

Seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska eased into the second round with a straight-sets victory over Hungarian Melinda Czink.

World number nine Radwanska, who has lost at the quarter-final stage in the last two years, advanced 6-3 6-3.

Flavia Pennetta, seeded 10th, also enjoyed a straightforward passage against Anabel Medina Garrigues.

After battling to a 6-4 first-set victory, Pennetta totally overran the unseeded Spaniard 6-0 in the second.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2005 finalist, was forced to go the distance against Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova.

The 19th-seeded Russian easily won the opener 6-2 but lost 5-7 in a second-set tie-break before avoiding a surprise exit by taking the decider 6-4.

Chinese 23rd seed Jie Zheng, meanwhile, overcame France’s Pauline Parmentier 7-5 6-4.

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