Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the Wuhan Open by the Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky in the third round on Wednesday.
Sharapova double-faulted six times in the first set and was twice a break up in the second set, but could not shake off Bacsinszky, who earned the biggest win of her career with a 7-6, 7-5 win over the Russian ranked No4 in the world. Bacsinszky had two previous top-10 wins, the last in 2010, but both were by retirement.
Sharapova’s exit continued a run of bad luck for the organisers of the inaugural £1.5m hard-court event.
The American top seed Serena Williams withdrew on Tuesday after falling ill midway through the first set of her second-round match against France’s Alizé Cornet.
Last week the city’s Li Na announced her retirement from the game, the former world No1 and 10th seed Jelena Jankovic was forced to quit on Tuesday and the Romanian world No2 Simona Halep, the fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, the ninth seed Ana Ivanovic, Dominika Cibulkova (12), Lucie Safarova (14) and Flavia Pennetta (15) all made early-round exits.
Cornet reached the quarter-finals by defeating Francesca Schiavone 7-6, 1-6, 6-3 after the Italian had led 3-1 in the last set.
The No7-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany eased past Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-1, and set up a quarter-final against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, who received a walkover when Garbine Muguruza of Spain could not compete due to gastroenteritis.