South African second seed Chanelle Scheepers was thrashed 6-2 6-1 by Magdelena Rybarikova on Monday in the opening round of the Washington Open tennis.
The world No.42’s summer hardcourt form has dipped after playing a Stanford quarter-final three weeks ago against Serena Williams.
After losing 6-4 6-0 to Williams, the 28-year-old Scheepers won a round the next week in Carlsbad before losing to US Olympian Varvara Lepchenko.
She never managed to get started in the heat and humidity of the US capital as she lost serve five times in 65 minutes to Rybarikova, the world No.114 who won despite making the long haul from the WTA event at Baku in central Asia.
Romanian Edina Gallovits-Hall upstaged Czech fifth seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-5 4-6 6-3.
Scheepers and Zahlavova’s losses were counter-balanced by two seeded wins.
Eighth seed Olga Govortsova of Belarus beat Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-2 6-2 and American seventh seed Coco Vandeweghe defeated Japan’s Erika Sema 6-4 6-1.
In other first-round results, Johanna Larsson of Sweden downed Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria 6-1 6-3, Melinda Czink of Hungary beat Russia’s Anna Chakvetadze 7-6 (7-4) 6-2, Jana Cepelova of Slovakia accounted for Japan’s Misaki Doi 3-6 6-3 6-3, and Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou eliminated Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-3 2-6 6-2.
The Washington tournament is being played as a joint event for the first time.
But the London Olympic mens and ladies tournament has drained the talent pool, with the highest seed on the women’s side being Russian world No.28 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. On the men’s side, there are just two players ranked in the top 30.
The men’s draw is headed by Mardy Fish, who decided months ago – even before an accelerated heartbeat gave him a now-cured health scare – to skip the Olympic Games.
The world No.13, who has played a limited schedule this season and missed two months with his medical condition, starts play on Tuesday against German Bjorn Phau.
Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov is making his tournament debut as second seed, ahead of South African Kevin Anderson.
In the men’s first round, Los Angeles quarter-finalist Leonardo Mayer of Argentina beat Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (10-8), while Florent Serra of France defeated American Brian Baker 4-6 6-3 6-4.
