The China Open suffered its biggest upset so far Monday as fourth seed Petra Kvitova was scalped by world No. 46 Carla Suarez Navarro in straight sets in the first round.
The Spaniard took just 68 minutes to register her first win in four meetings with last year’s Wimbledon champion Kvitova, triumphing 6-3, 6-2.
The next opponent for Suarez Navarro will be either former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia or 2011 China Open semifinalist Monica Niculescu of Romania.
Elsewhere, world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka breezed past Alize Cornet of France into the second round with a 6-1, 6-0 win.
In round two, Azarenka will face Sabine Lisicki, who knocked out Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.
Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina beat Tamira Paszek of Austria 7-6(5), 6-2 in their second-round match, and the world No. 78 awaits either Azarenka or Lisicki in the third round.
