Samantha Stosur and Caroline Wozniacki have been bundled out on a difficult day for the seeds in the first round of the Porsche Grand Prix.
Sixth-seeded Stosur was beaten by former world number one Jelena Jankovic 6-4 6-4 on Wednesday at the WTA claycourt lead-up event to the French Open.
Wozniacki, seeded seventh and another ex-number one, was sent packing by Spain’s Carla Suarez-Navarro 7-6 (8-6) 6-1.
Fifth-seeded former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova rallied from 4-1 down in the first set as she fought off reigning French Open junior champion Annika Beck 7-5 6-7 (0-7) 6-3.
Lucie Safarova defeated Mona Barthel 6-4 6-1 and now runs into top-seeded French Open champion Maria Sharapova, who has a first-round bye.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won a Russian duel against Ekaterina Makarova 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 6-4 for a date with third-seed Angelique Kerber of Germany.
The 2011 Stuttgart champion Julia Goerges of Germany led 6-2 2-1 when her Belgian opponent Kirsten Flipkens quit with stomach problems, and now plays Kvitova.
Jankovic, who won in Stuttgart in 2008 and is currently ranked 18th, had the upper hand over Stosur from breaks in the ninth game of the first set and the third of the second. Stosur saved two match points at 5-3 but then hit a forehand long on Jankovic’s third chance.
It was Jankovic’s sixth win overall in eight meetings with Stosur but first on clay. The Serbian has shown good form lately with the Bogota title, Charleston final and Miami semi-final.
“She is really good on clay. It was very hard,” Jankovic said. “I have played well over the last couple of months with some good wins.”