Kanepi had gone through to round two after another former world number one, Naomi Osaka, had withdrawn in the second set, after Kanepi won the first.

For Muguruza, ranked 8th by the WTA, the clash was the first on a hard court this summer – Kanepi had already played in a hard court tournament when she reached the final in Washington DC at the weekend, where she was defeated by  Lumdilla Samsonova (Russia) across three sets.

Nonetheless, Muguruza took the lead in set one and was soon at 4:1. While the Estonian, now ranked 31st in the world, pulled the scores back to 4:4, she lost her serve in the next game, while the Spanish player held on to win 6:4.

In the second set, Kanepi went ahead, getting to 3:1 before Muguruza won three-in-a-row to take the score to 4:3. Once again and with the score at 5:4, Kanepi lost her serve and failed to break Muguruza's, meaning the latter won the set 6:4 and with it the match.

Interestingly, Kanepi's compatriot, world number two Anett Kontaveit, also lost in the same competition, this time in round two, by the same scoreline – 6:4, 6:4.

In the Kanepi-Muguruza clash, the Estonian served up four aces and committed two double faults; Muguruza served two aces, by comparison, and committed five double faults.

Kanepi also had a slightly better first service success rate (56 percent to 52 percent), but the Spanish player won 60 percent off the first serve, to Kanepi's 55 percent.

Unforced errors were almost equal, 22 (Kanepi) to 20 (Muguruza).

Where Kanepi fell down was in realizing only two of the 12 break points presented to her, compared with the 100 percent success rate (4/4) which Muguruza managed.

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