Top seed Ana Ivanovic suffered a humiliating exit from Wimbledon as she was thrashed 6-1, 6-4 by Chinese wildcard Zheng Jie in the third round on Friday.

Ivanovic, 20, arrived at the All England Club freshly installed as the women's number one after winning the French Open, but she was completely out-played against an opponent ranked 132 places below her.

The Serb had reached the final of both Grand Slams this year, but this was her earliest departure from a major since the 2007 Australian Open.

She could have few complaints though after a performance that suggested she is still to come to terms with her victory in Paris.

Ivanovic had been lucky to avoid defeat against Nathalie Dechy in the previous round after a netcord helped her save two match points. There was no escape this time.

Just 24 hours after third seed Maria Sharapova crashed out against world number 154 Alla Kudryavtseva, Ivanovic was the latest glamour girl to come unstuck on Wimbledon's Court One.

Zheng now plays Hungarian 15th seed Agnes Szavay in her first appearance in the last 16 at Wimbledon, an achievement which equals her previous best Grand Slam performance at the 2004 French Open.

"I like to play on the grass but I'm surprised I won the match," Zheng said. "I just kept going and tried to do my best. This was a tough match because she has the good serve and big forehand. I just tried to give her the backhand more.

"I thank my husband. He was with me when I was injured last year. He gave me the support so I could come back."

It was a rare moment in the spotlight for the 24-year-old doubles specialist, but there were no visible nerves as she held serve comfortably in her first two service games.

Ivanovic didn't seem to have learned the lessons of her lucky win over Dechy. She was strangely passive again and allowed Zheng to break for a 3-1 lead.

The compact Zheng kept the pressure on Ivanovic with some crunching forehands and there was more zip to her groundstrokes and no shortage of guile either as she cleverly moved Ivanovic out of position, forcing the Serb to net and surrender another break.

Even when Ivanovic had four break points to keep the set alive, Zheng was able to fight back and close it out. Her ranking had only plunged after she missed most of 2007 through an ankle injury and showed she has real class by seizing the initiative again at the start of the second set.

More unforced errors from Ivanovic played their part as well as the Chinese girl broke again. Ivanovic was staring defeat in the face. She finally woke up enough to break back for 2-2. But that was nothing more than a brief respite as Zheng broke again in the next game.

It proved the final blow to Ivanovic as Zheng held serve three times to claim the biggest scalp of her career.