Guangzhou – Four of the top five seeds including number one pick Samantha Stosur crashed out of the $500,000 WTA Guangzhou Open in the first round Tuesday, as the former US Open champion's poor run of form continued.
Australian Stosur lost to home wildcard entry Wang Yafan 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, making seven double faults in a two-hour, three minute match.
On a day of shocks fourth seed Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia lost to Romanian Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-2, while Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, seeded five, crashed out to Hong Kong's Zhang Ling 6-4, 6-1.
Third seed Sloane Stephens of the US lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to Spain's Silvia Soler-Espinosa in the day's last match.
Stosur won the US Open in 2011, a season which saw her climb to number four in the rankings.
But she is now at 20 after failing to get past the semi-finals of any of the 18 tournaments she has competed in so far this year. – Sapa-AFP