Australia’s Daria Gavrilova has been eliminated in the first round of the Connecticut Open.

The Melburnian was beaten 6-3 6-4 by tournament fourth seed and world No.6 Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.

Gavrilova’s early defeat deprives her of valuable practice ahead of the US Open which starts at Flushing Meadows next week.

While Safarova advanced, upsets were the order of the opening matches with Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky (seeded sixth) and Sara Errani (eighth) bowing out to French pair Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic repectively.