Reigning champion Petra Kvitova began the defence of her Wimbledon title in emphatic style as she thrashed Holland's Kiki Bertens in straight sets.
Kvitova lost just one point on her serve during the contest, which came with a double fault in the final game, as she beat Bertens 6-1 6-0 in 35 minutes.
It was the Czech's first competitive match on grass this season but she showed few signs of rust on Centre Court and will face either Japan's Kurumi Nara or Poland's Magda Linette in round two.
Eugenie Bouchard was knocked out in the first round as one of the biggest stars of the grand slam 12 months ago became the first big-name casualty of this year's tournament.
Canadian Bouchard marched through to the 2014 final, where Kvitova denied her the title, but has endured a terrible season on tour and the Wimbledon exit adds to her troubles.
She lost 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 to China's Duan Ying-Ying on Court Three, sealing her own fate by cracking a forehand into the net.
Romanian Simona Halep became the highest seed to join the first-round exodus as she perished to Jana Cepelova.
A semi-finalist last year, this time Halep folded from a strong position to lose 5-7 6-4 6-3 against a Slovakian opponent ranked 106th in the world.
Angelique Kerber became the third player at Wimbledon this year to achieve the usually rare 'double bagel' as she beat fellow German Carina Witthoeft 6-0 6-0.
Former semi-finalist Kerber is a solid grass-court performer and won the Aegon Classic title in Birmingham earlier this month.
Seeded 10th for Wimbledon, she followed Venus Williams and Andrea Petkovic, who both won without dropping a game on Monday, in making the most straightforward possible progress to the second round.
Before this tournament, there had not been a Wimbledon double bagel in the women's singles for six years.
Kerber gave a curious assessment of her resounding win, as she said: "Carina was playing not bad, actually. The games were not like 40-love. It was very close, actually.
"It's always tough to play against a German. It's always not easy. I'm very happy about my performance in the first round.
"I'm feeling good on grass, and I've always played well on it. Two weeks ago I won my first title on grass, so it's always good to come with a title to the tournament and to a grand slam.
"But this is a completely new tournament. Every match starts from zero. The good thing is, I've had a lot of matches on grass so far, and I'm happy to be back here.
"I'm playing good tennis right now. That's for sure. But I'm still trying to improve my game every day."
The fallout from her wrist injury absence haunted Laura Robson at Wimbledon, inconsistencies in technique forcing a straight-sets 6-4 6-4 defeat to Evgeniya Rodina in the first round.
Service action shortcomings and overall rustiness put Robson on the back foot throughout, and the former British number one slipped out of SW19 despite boasting a far more powerful ground game than her Russian opponent.
Admittedly undercooked and eventually overwhelmed, the currently-unranked wildcard entry was unable to pull off victory in just the second match of her long-awaited comeback.
Heather Watson pulled off her two-day comeback victory over Caroline Garcia to book a second-round clash with Daniela Hantuchova.
The British number one had fought back from a set down to level the match when bad light stopped play on Monday night, and completed the job when the tie resumed this afternoon.
Watson prevailed 1-6 6-3 8-6 to reach Wimbledon's second round for the third time in her career, claiming a fair scalp in dismissing the 32nd seed in the process.
Caroline Wozniacki was in early trouble against China's Saisai Zheng but the Danish fifth seed roared back to win 7-5 6-0.
Also advancing were Germany's 18th seed and former finalist Sabine Lisicki, Poland's dangerous 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska, the eighth-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova and the experienced Serbian Jelena Jankovic, who won a deciding set 10-8 against Russia's Elena Vesnina
Meanwhile, Venus Williams and Serena Williams have pulled out of the women's doubles.
The announcement was made by the tournament referee's office.
The sisters have won the women's doubles title five times, most recently in 2012. They had not begun their campaign this year.
In 2014 they abandoned a second-round match when an unwell Serena Williams could not complete the contest.
No reason was immediately given for the withdrawal, with lucky losers Misaki Doi and Stephanie Vogt promoted to take their place in the draw.
Both won their singles matches on Monday and they are seeded to play against each other in the fourth round.
