Eugenie Bouchard and Tsvetana Pironkova were high-profile first-round casualties at the Istanbul Cup on Tuesday.

Former French Open semi-finalist and fourth seed Bouchard is in a woeful rut of form and a 6-0 6-4 defeat to Jana Cepelova was her sixth loss in a row on the WTA Tour and her sixth first-round exit of 2017, leaving her without a win since the second round of the Australian Open.

Pironkova (7) also continued poor form in Turkey, going down 6-2 6-4 to world number 257 Basak Eraydin - her fifth defeat in succession.

There was Romanian success as Irina-Camelia Begu (3) and Sorana Cirstea (5) saw off Tatjana Maria and Fiona Ferro respectively, while Sara Errani completed a dominant 6-0 6-1 win over Hsieh Su-wei, who only just avoided a double bagel by breaking the Italian as she served for the match.

Kirsten Flipkens benefited from the retirement of Kristina Kucova after winning the first set 6-0, while Anna Kalinskaya and Sara Sorribes Tormo were also victorious.