Four seeded players out of a total of eight have been eliminated in the second round of the ASB Tennis Classic in Auckland.
Italy's Roberta Vinci, the sixth seed, was the first to go, beaten in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 by Elena Vesnina of Russia.
Also out is fifth seed Julia Goerges who lost to fellow German Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-3.
Kerber defeated New Zealand No 1 Marina Erakovic in the first round of the competition on Tuesday, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Top seed Sabine Lisicki hardly looked convincing, needing a tiebreak and three sets to knock out fellow German, Mona Barthel, while fourth seed Flavia Pennetta, another Italian, had a routine win over British number one Elena Baltacha.
It was straight sets too for Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic over second seed Peng Shuai, while another Chinese player, Zheng Jie, took out eighth seed Monica Niculescu of Romania.
Rain only delayed the inevitable for young American Christina McHale who was down 6-1, 5-1 when her match against Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was suspended due to the weather.
On resumption, Kuznetsova had no trouble wrapping it up 6-1, 6-1.
