Serena Williams has put herself back on top of the tennis world with a routine win at the China Open but Andy Roddick and Jelena Jankovic plumbed the depths when their title defences ended in their opening matches.
And in Japan the US Open winner Juan Martin del Potro - who's not returning to Auckland to defend his tile - crashed out of the Japan Open in the first round, beaten by an unseeded French qualifier, Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Williams's 6-3 6-2 second-round victory over Russian Ekaterina Makarova means she will replace Dinara Safina as world number one when the rankings are issued next week, ending the Russian's 25-week reign, which was controversial as Safina's never won a grand slam title.
But her fellow American Roddick,was humbled in straight sets by a Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot, while Serbia's Jankovic lost in three to China's Peng Shuai.
Spain's world number two Rafael Nadal beat the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in three sets while Russians Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva also progressed.
