Fourth seed Elina Svitolina crashed out of the Tianjin Open in the first round on Monday as she lost comprehensively in straight sets to Russia's Elena Vesnina.
The world number 21 from Ukraine was beaten 6-2 6-4 in one hour and 28 minutes against an opponent ranked 115th.
Vesina broke twice in each set, converting both of her break points in the second, as her opponent could only take one of the five she carved out in the match.
There was better news for fifth seed Kristina Mladenovic, who made short work of home favourite Liu Fangzhou.
The Frenchwoman raced to a 6-0 6-1 win in just 46 minutes thanks to three breaks of serve in each set.
The 22-year-old world number 27 did not face a single break point against her Chinese opponent, ranked 141 places below her.
Sixth-seeded Brazilian Teliana Pereira and American Alison Riske, the seventh seed, also enjoyed comfortable victories.
Pereira was a 7-5 6-2 winner over Japan's Nao Hibino, while Riske swept aside China's Han Xinyun 6-0 6-4.
There was more disappointment for the hosts as eighth seed Zheng Saisai also made an early exit, losing 7-5 6-3 to Russia's Evgeniya Rodina.
There were also first-round wins for Russia's Elizaveta Kulichkova, Poland's Magda Linette and China's Qiang Wang.
Source: PA
