Chinese players led a home charge in the first round of the Guangzhou Open on Tuesday, with No. 5 and No. 7 seeds Elise Mertens and Sam Stosur unexpectedly dumped out.
Mertens pushed for a comeback after falling behind to Wang Yafan but could not prevent a tiebreak loss in the second set to go out 6-2 7-6 (7-5), while Australian Stosur was overturned 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 7-5 by Han Xinyun.
The home success was underlined by top seed Peng Shuai's drawn-out victory over Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 6-3 result posted after two hours and 20 minutes of fluctuating fortunes.
Peng will be joined in round two by fellow Chinese Zhang Shuai after her straightforward 6-1, 6-0 win against wildcard You Xiaodi, while sixth seed Alize Cornet avoided the unexpected fates of her fellow bigger names by recovering for a 4-6 6-2 6-2 victory over Bernarda Pera of the USA.