MELBOURNE, Australia -- Coming off a resurgent season, Ana Ivanovic believed she could be one of the top contenders for the first Grand Slam of the year.
"I feel like I'm ready for the next step," she said on the eve of the Australian Open.
Instead, Ivanovic was sent packing in the first round Monday -- one of eight seeded players to tumble -- amid a flurry of double faults, falling to No. 142-ranked Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
After a dominant first set, the fifth-seeded Ivanovic began to appear increasingly nervous, and a longtime flaw in her game resurfaced -- her shaky service motion. She repeatedly caught her wayward ball tosses and double-faulted three times in a single game to drop serve in the second set.
As her frustrations mounted and the errors piled up, Ivanovic swiped her racket at the court, causing the top part to splinter. She finished with 10 double faults and 30 unforced errors in the match.
"It's really disappointing," a teary-eyed Ivanovic said afterward. "You know, it's probably the worst thing [that] could happen."
It was quite a departure from Ivanovic's career-reviving performance at the Australian Open last year, when she stunned No. 1 Serena Williams in the fourth round to reach her first quarterfinal at Melbourne Park since her run to the 2008 final.
The Serbian star built on the momentum to capture four titles and win 58 matches -- more match wins than any other woman on tour. She also finished the year at No. 5 in the rankings for the first time since 2008, the year she won her only Grand Slam title at the French Open.
Coming into 2015, Ivanovic wasn't satisfied with just going deep at the Australian Open again -- she wanted to vie for the title. With a new coach on board, fellow Serb Dejan Petrovic, Ivanovic told a pre-tournament news conference that she was feeling comfortable with her team and playing with confidence again.
She was also coming off a run to the final of the season-opening tournament in Brisbane, where she lost a tight three-setter to No. 2-ranked Maria Sharapova.
All of which makes her defeat to Hradecka tougher to deal with. It was her earliest loss at a Grand Slam since falling in the first round of the 2011 French Open.
After hitting a forehand into the net on match point, Ivanovic gave Hradecka a perfunctory hand shake, quickly gathered her bags and rushed off the court without even a wave to the crowd.
"It's hard. There is no easy way to [get over it], but to get back on the court and back working really hard and try to see next challenge and next event," she said. "It has to hurt, as well."
Second-ranked Maria Sharapova followed up her recent title in a warm-up tournament with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Petra Martic in the last match of the day in the women's draw.
"I had a great start in Brisbane winning the title for the first time in my career -- that was great to have those matches coming into such a big match in Melbourne," she said.
Meanwhile, third-seeded Simona Halep advanced, continuing her strong start to the year with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Karin Knapp of Italy.
Halep, who opened the season by winning the Shenzhen Open in China, was a quarterfinalist at last year's Australian Open, losing to eventual finalist Dominika Cibulkova.
After an early exchange of service breaks, Halep clinched the first set by breaking Knapp's serve. She clinched the match by also breaking Knapp's serve.
The 23-year-old Romanian moved steadily up in the rankings last year, rising as high as No. 2, after winning two titles and making it to the final of the French Open, where she lost to Sharapova.
No. 6 Eugenie Bouchard, who reached the semifinals or better at three majors last year, beat Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-2, 6-4 in a night match on the renovated Margaret Court Arena. No. 10 Ekaterina Makarova, No. 14 Sara Errani, No. 21 Peng Shuai and No. 22 Karolina Pliskova also moved into the second round.
Irina-Camelia Begu defeated No. 9 Angelique Kerber 6-4, 0-6, 6-1, Yanina Wickmayer beat No. 23 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 and Caroline Garcia beat No. 27 and two-time major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-2. No. 16 Lucie Safarova (16), No. 17 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 28 Sabine Lisicki and No. 32 Belinda Bencic were also defeated on the opening day.
American Christina McHale was sick on court and saved a match point as she rallied to beat Stephanie Foretz 6-4, 1-6, 12-10. The final set took nearly two hours to complete.
"I was more just embarrassed that it took so long to clean up," she said. "But I did feel much better after I let it out."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.