Eugenie Bouchard falls at first hurdle again

The former Wimbledon finalist took the lead, but eventually crumbled to a 3-6 6-3 6-3 loss to the world number 102 in a match lasted a shade under two hours.

Fourth seed Caroline Garcia was made to work hard for a 7-6 (7/2) 2-6 6-4 win against Anett Kontaveit, while wildcard Francesca Schiavone upset fifth seed Laura Siegemund.

She beat the German 6-2 6-2 to set up a tie with Monica Niculescu, who beat Kirsten Flipkens in straight sets, while Varvara Lepchenko also progressed after beating Tsvetana Pironkova in three sets.

Yanina Wickmayer failed to recover from a nightmare first set as she went down to Anna Karolina Schmedlova, ranked 99 places below her in 152nd, 6-0 1-6 6-3.

Home favourite Daria Kasatkina kicked the Kremlin Cup off with a straight sets victory over Belinda Bencic in Moscow.

The number eight seed saw off her Swiss opponent 6-4 6-1 in just over an hour to book a spot in the second round.

Ninth seed Timea Babos was made to work harder against Romania's 2014 finalist Irina-Camelia Begu, eventually coming through in three sets 6-2 6-7 (2/7) 7-5.

The two battled for almost two-and-a-half hours before Babos claimed the win, while qualifiers Lesia Tsurenko, Katerina Siniakova, Anna Blinkova and Nicole Gibbs secured spots in the main draw.