The two-time defending champion was 0 for 7 converting break points in the first set, which he lost to 19-year-old British wild card Jack Draper.
Six men's matches and 10 women's matches were called off.
Sabalenka has won a tour-leading 30 matches this year and her seeding is her highest at a major tournament.
Wimbledon is back after a one-year hiatus and the gray, overcast weather felt right at home at an event notorious for its rain delays.
Play on the first morning of the grass-court tournament has been delayed at least until noon because of rain.
Konta, a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 2017, is the first singles player in either the women's or men's bracket to be withdrawn from the field because of coronavirus protocols.
Winner of 13 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed, the 41-year-old Venus is the winner of five Wimbledon singles titles, with the last coming in 2008.
Win his next seven matches at Wimbledon, and Djokovic will own three consecutive titles at the All England Club.
Ostapenko, a wild-card entry in Eastbourne, collected her first WTA trophy since 2019 and fourth overall by beating Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 6-3 in the women's final.
Federer, who has a 101-13 match record at Wimbledon since his debut in 1999, will take on France's world No. 42 Adrian Mannarino in the first round.
The top-seeded Djokovic will have a lot at stake when play begins at the All England Club on Monday, a year after the grass-court tournament was canceled because of the pandemic.
Halep is ranked No. 3 but would have been seeded second at the All England Club because second-ranked Naomi Osaka pulled out of Wimbledon earlier.
The tennis world was shaken when the All England Club announced on April 1, 2020, that Wimbledon would be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic — the first time since World War II it was called off for any reason.
The 27-year-old from Austria retired during the opening set of his first match at the Mallorca Open grass-court tuneup tournament this week, citing a wrist injury.
Wimbledon was cancelled last year for the first time since 1945 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 26-year old now needs to beat Australia's 32nd seed Marc Polmans, ranked 152.
The Indian tennis player attempt to qualify for the women's singles main draw of Wimbledon failed after she went down in the first round of the Qualifiers.
The left-handed Indian, ranked 148, lost 1-6 6-7(5) to his 18-year-old rival, who is ranked as low as 1038.
Rafael Nadal has announced he is pulling out of Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics.
Osaka, a 23-year-old who was born in Japan, withdrew from the French Open after the first round, saying she needed a mental health break.
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