Daria Gavrilova will enter next week’s Australian Open without a win after slumping to her second straight first-round exit of the summer.

A week after losing her first match in Brisbane, the 34th-ranked Gavrilova fell in a 0-4 hole early in her round-one match against Yulia Putintseva at the Sydney International.

Gavrilova’s prospects worsened when she rolled her ankle early in the second and was broken in the same game, but she showed her fighting spirit to break twice and level at 5-all.

A third set loomed when she raced out to a 3-1 lead in a tiebreaker, but the Kazakh claimed six of the next seven points to eventually prevail 6-1 7-6 (7-4).

The back-to-back first-round defeats put a massive dent in Gavrilova’s preparations for Melbourne, where she has reached the round of 16 on two occasions.

Her exit is another blow for Sydney organisers, who also lost world No.7 Karolina Pliskova from the draw a day after she won in Brisbane.

World No.4 Naomi Osaka also pulled out on tournament eve.

Pliskova was a notable absentee from the women’s draw on Monday in which she was slated for a rematch with Brisbane finalist Lesia Tsurenko in the first round.

The world No.24 Tsurenko has also withdrawn from Sydney, where rain delayed play for over three hours.

Gavrilova was the second local to exit after wildcard Ajla Tomljanovic went down 6-3 6-3 to Italian world No.27 Camila Giorgi.

Tomljanovic was down 2-1 when both players went back to the lockers due to another rain delay and when play resumed, she was unable to make any headway into Giorgi’s serve.

Veteran Samantha Stosur faces Dominika Cibulkova later on Monday, while Australia’s No.1, Ashleigh Barty, will face 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday.