LONDON — A year that started with another Grand Slam title for Li Na has turned into a major disappointment.

On a day when top-seeded Novak Djokovic had a nasty-looking fall, defending champ Andy Murray easily advanced and five-time champ Venus Williams lost, Australian Open winner Li was eliminated 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) in the third round by Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the first major Wimbledon upset.

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Novak Djokovic goes down in the third set, but a sore shoulder wasn’t enough to keep the men’s No. 1 seed from convincingly beating Gilles Simon on Friday in the third round at Wimbledon. Djokovic won 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 and will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Monday. The Associated Press

At the French Open, where she won her first Grand Slam in 2011, Li was beaten by Kristina Mladenovic of France in the first round. The second-seeded Li, who did not play at any of the grass-court warm-up tournaments over the past two weeks, looked out of sorts for most of the match Friday.

“I think I made a wrong decision, I needed to play some matches before the big one,” said Li, who failed to convert a set point in the second set.

Williams lost 5-7, 7-6 (2), 7-5 to 2011 Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova. The length of the match was no surprise – the sixth-seeded Kvitova, who broke No. 30 Williams for the first time in the last game of the 2:30 match, had won three of the four previous matches and all had gone to three sets.

“I knew that Venus can play unbelievable on the grass and that is what she did,” Kvitova said.

Djokovic overcame a hard fall in the third set to advance to the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 Centre Court win over Gilles Simon. Leading 3-2 in the third set and with Simon serving, Djokovic lunged for a forehand shot and fell hard to the grass, rolling over and grabbing his upper left arm and grimacing in pain.

But he recovered to play out the final four games of the match, breaking Simon’s serve in the final game, his seventh break in the match.

“I basically had a strong impact on the shoulder,” Djokovic said. “When I stood up, I felt that click or pop. I feared maybe it might be a dislocated shoulder … or joint problem.

“But luckily for me it was only an impact that had a minor effect on the joint and the muscles around, but no damage, significant, that can cause a bigger problem.”

Djokovic will next play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Jimmy Wang of Taiwan 6-2, 6-2, 7-5, on Monday.

“There is two days off, I’m going to try to recover and get ready,” Djokovic said.

Murray, playing the last match on Centre Court, beat Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 and hasn’t dropped a set this tournament. He has a 16-match winning streak at the All England Club incorporating his London Olympics win in 2012 and last year’s title run.

Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, Leonardo Mayer of Argentina and Jeremy Chardy of France also advanced to the second week.

In a second-round men’s match carried over from Thursday due to rain, 2013 semifinalist Jerzy Janowicz of Poland beat Australian veteran Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-3.

Hewitt broke the Open era record for the most five-set matches played at Grand Slam tournaments. The loss to Janowicz was his 42nd five-set match, breaking the mark of 41 he had shared with Andre Agassi.

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