WIMBLEDON, England — Ana Ivan-ovic covered her face when the shocking upset was over, as if that would pass for a dark room where she could contemplate where it all went wrong.
A day earlier, Maria Sharapova simply looked numb as she, too, was bundled out of Wimbledon.
In a span of 24 hours, the tournament had lost the glamour twins of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour — both in straight sets, both to obscure opponents ranked in the 100s.
No. 1 Ivanovic, out to No. 133 Zheng Jie of China. And No. 3 Sharapova, beaten by the 154th-ranked daughter of a Russian Greco-Roman wrestler.
It was either one of those once-in-a-lifetime double stunners or the grim reality that, with Justine Henin happily into an early retirement, women’s tennis has been left with its weakest top 10 in more than a decade.
There was a lot more significant tennis on a Friday that brought the first rain interruption of the tournament, though it lasted only 1 1/2 hours.
Roger Federer won his 63rd consecutive grass-court match, beating Marc Gicquel, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1, to place himself four victories from his sixth consecutive Wimbledon title.
Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga., the last U.S. man left in the draw following Thursday losses by Andy Roddick and James Blake, was beaten in four sets by big-serving left-hander Feliciano Lopez of Spain.
Serena Williams, rapidly rounding into top speed, ran away from Amelie Mauresmo to reach the round of 16.
Marat Safin continued his renaissance here, backing up his upset of No. 2 Novak Djokovic with a four-set win over Andreas Seppi.
And Bethanie Mattek, a part-time resident of Boca Raton, Fla., recorded her first top-10 win by upsetting last year’s runner-up, Marion Bartoli of France.
While Sharapova on Thursday seemed blase about her loss, Ivanovic wasn’t trying to dismiss this embarrassing 6-1, 6-4 defeat to Zheng, but her explanation seemed hollow.
“It’s tough, you know,” Ivanovic said. “I didn’t play many tournaments before, so I had a little time to adjust. But, still I look at it as a learning experience. And, like I said, she played very well today.”
Ivanovic’s serve lacked punch, and that’s a major part of her repertoire.
She double-faulted away the opening game of the match and the average speed on her first serves in the opening set was only 98 mph. It was as if she wanted to just spin in a lot of first serves, which she did at 86 percent efficiency, and trust that her ground game would overpower Zheng.
She was wrong. Zheng broke Ivanovic on four of her nine service games.
“I feel today sometimes she serve no good,” Zheng said in her broken English. “That gave me chance for play more aggressive.”
She became the first Chinese woman to defeat a No. 1 player in a Grand Slam, though Ivanovic might not be No. 1 when the new rankings come out July 7. No. 2 Jelena Jankovic and No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova can reach No. 1 if they keep winning.
Lopez stroked 24 aces against Reynolds and prevailed, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
