Errani dumps Kvitova out of China Open
Last year's China Open runner-up Petra Kvitova was left stunned following a first-round defeat at the hands of Italian Sara Errani.
Sara Errani caused an upset in the first round of the WTA China Open as she eliminated second seed Petra Kvitova in straight sets on Sunday.
The Italian had lost all six of her previous encounters with the number two seed, who reached the final of this WTA Premier hard-court competition in 2014 only to be defeated by Maria Sharapova, but brought an end to the hoodoo with a 7-5 6-4 victory in two hours and eight minutes.
Errani will now face Caroline Garcia in the second round after she beat Zheng Saisai in front of her home crowd without the need for a third set.
One of the home crowd's few local hopes exited in the opening round, with third seed Flavia Pennetta overcoming 160th ranked Han Xinyun 7-5 4-6 6-4.
Two seeds that did make it into the second round, however, were Caroline Wozniacki, who booked her place by overcoming Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski in straight sets 6-2 6-4, while Agnieszka Radwanska won her first set against Coco Vandeweghe in 40 minutes before the American retired.
Czech Karolina Pliskova did not share the same fate, going down to Sloane Stephens in straight sets, the American winning 6-3 6-2.
Number one seed Simona Halep retired in her meeting with Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena, while Carla Suarez Navarro also withdrew from the competition despite winning her opening set against Lesia Tsurenko, while Monica Puig advanced after Zarina Diyas retired.
Elsewhere there were wins for Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Alison Van Uytvanck, Irina Falconi, Mona Barthel, Kateryna Bondarenko, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Mariana Duque-Marino.