A bizarre bust-up over a banana has typified a horror start to the Australian Open by the US women's contingent.
CoCo Vandeweghe entered the first major of the year boasting a career-high ranking of nine.
But the combustible American crashed out at the first hurdle on Monday, losing her temper and the first-round match to Hungarian Timea Babos 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.
The low point came when Vandeweghe was hit with a code violation for taking too long to return to the court because she had yet to finish eating a banana, which she claimed had not been provided on time at the change of ends.
"I'm waiting for the bananas," she railed at chair umpire Fergus Murphy.
"Why should I feel uncomfortable because the court is ill-prepared?"
Murphy was unmoved, slugging her with a code violation for time-wasting.
In the enforced absence of seven-time champion Serena Williams, Vandeweghe was part of an ignominious 1-9 start to the Open by American women.
Nicole Gibbs was the sole winner, with a 6-1 6-1 dispatching of Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova.
"In women's tennis, anything can happen when there is no Serena Williams," said Babos.
Serena withdrew from the Open 12 days ago having decided she was not well enough prepared to defend her title after giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia in September.
Williams' older sister Venus was also among the first-round casualties.
A year after losing an all-Williams Open final, the fifth-seed went down 6-3 7-5 to Switzerland's former world No.7 Belinda Bencic, who is on the comeback trail from injury.
Sloane Stephens' barren run since claiming a maiden major crown at the US Open continued as she bowed out 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 to world No.34 Zhang Shuai from China.
Catherine Bellis, Alison Riske, Sofia Kenin, Taylor Townsend and Jennifer Brady all lost.
It was a stunning turnaround from September's US Open when the host nation provided all four women's semi-finalists - Stephens, Madison Keys, Venus Williams and Vandeweghe - the first time that had happened in 36 years.
The men didn't fare much better, winning just two of five.
Local John Millman's defeat of 16th seed John Isner and eighth seed Jack Sock's loss to Yuichi Sugita ensured every American seed in action was defeated.
Another 13 Americans will fly the flag on Tuesday, with 13th seed Sam Querrey the highest-ranked player remaining.
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