No.2-ranked Simona Halep lost her opening match at the Wuhan Open, dismantled by Daria Kasatkina 6-2 6-1 on Tuesday.
Halep received a bye into the second round. She broke Kasatkina early but the Russian dominated thereafter.
It was Kasatkina's third win over a top-five player, after two wins over then-No.1 Angelique Kerber this year.
"The game was much more difficult than the score is," Kasatkina said.
Halep had a chance this week to supplant Garbine Muguruza as No.1 by reaching the final with other results going her way.
No.4 Karolina Pliskova kept alive her shot at No.1 by beating local Shuai Zhang 6-4 3-6 6-4. To regain the No.1 ranking, Pliskova must win the Wuhan title and hope Muguruza loses before the semifinals. Muguruza was in action late.
"I always want to play better than I did last year; I already won one round so hopefully I can win one more," Pliskova said.
Another Russian, two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, lost to Alize Cornet of France 6-3 6-3.
Three other seeds advanced: No.7 and 2016 finalist Dominika Cibulkova, No.8 Jelena Ostapenko, and No.9 Agnieszka Radwanska.
Radwanska will now play Ashleigh Barty for a spot in the last eight after the Australian upset Johann Konta on Monday.
Ostapenko came back to beat Barbora Strycova 2-6 7-5 6-3 and Radwanska saw off Julia Goerges of Germany 7-5 7-5.
Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, Caroline Garcia of France, Wang Qiang of China, and Varvara Lepchenko of the US were also winners on Tuesday.
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