Andrea Petkovic crashed out of the Guangzhou International Women's Open in the first round with a straight-sets defeat to Monica Puig.

The world number 19 and second seed succumbed to a 6-1 6-4 defeat to Puig on Tuesday, marking her second straight surprise loss following defeat to Johanna Konta in the third round of the US Open. 

Puig, ranked 106th, raced into a 4-0 lead before taking the first set and then displayed resiliency to bounce back from an early break in the second to set up a clash with Yanina Wickmayer, who beat Magda Linette 6-4 6-4.

On a day made busier in China by Monday's washout, third seed Sara Errani needed three sets and one hour and 52 minutes to see off Duan Ying-Ying 6-3 3-6 6-2. Next up for the Italian is qualifier Zhang Kai-Lin.

There were no such difficulties for top seed Simona Halep, the Romanian overcoming Petra Martic 6-4 6-2 to take her record on the hard courts this year to a Tour-leading 38-6.

Halep said: "It was very humid and difficult to play today, but it was the same thing for the opponent - both of us were struggling a little bit.

"But when you win a match everything feels good anyway, and I'm just happy I could finish the match in two sets."

Timea Babos is Halep's next opponent after the Hungarian claimed a 6-3 6-0 victory over Yang Zhaoxuan.

Seventh seed Danka Kovinic was dumped out in straight sets by Bojana Jovanovski, but seeded trio Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Monica Niculescu made it through.

Elsewhere in the draw, Zheng Saisai, Francesca Schiavone, Urszula Radwanska, Denisa Allertova, Anett Kontaveit, and Rebecca Peterson all progressed.