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Sydney - American Sam Querrey completed a clean-out of top seeds in the Sydney International when he was ousted in his opening match of the tournament on Wednesday.
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Querrey followed women's world number Caroline Wozniacki in a quick exit from the Australian Open main lead-up tournament when he was whipped 6-4, 6-3 by Ukraine's 49th-ranked Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round.
Querrey, who had a bye into the second round, was all at sea in his first match of the season, bowing out in just 62 minutes.
Wozniacki and second seed Vera Zvonareva were knocked out of the women's draw in their first matches on Tuesday.
"It was my first match of the year, it was very windy out there," Querrey said.
"He's a tough guy to play in the wind. He's got a massive serve and kind of slices the ball around. Not many guys play like him.
"I'm going to practise for four days now before the Open."
Organisers said it was the first time both top seeds had been knocked out in their first matches at the Sydney International since Jennifer Capriati and Sebastien Grosjean in 2002.
Dolgopolov, who beat Australian teenager Bernard Tomic in an unfinished opening round earlier in the day, will now take on Frenchman Gilles Simon, who eliminated Portugal's Frederico Gil, 6-1, 6-3.
Elsewhere, former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, searching for more court time in his recovery from wrist surgery, found German Florian Mayer too difficult an opponent so early in his comeback.
Del Potro found backing up after Monday's 3hr 20min opening win over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez too much and he went out to the 37th-ranked Mayer, 6-2, 7-5 in 74 minutes.
"Mayer played better than me," del Potro said. "He has more confidence. But it's normal. I am very far off my good game, but I did my best. It was shorter, but I tried."
Del Potro, who upset Roger Federer to land the 2009 US Open final in five sets, was grateful to be back on the tour after his nightmare 2010.
"I beat Lopez in my first match, and today I played against a very good player.
"I lost, but I'm in the competition again. That's important for my future."
Mayer, who was del Potro's last win in the third round at last year's Australian Open before his wrist injury, was sympathetic towards the giant Argentine.
"Of course, you could see he's not 100 percent," Mayer said.
"His serve is really strong, but from the baseline he missed a lot.
"I think also he was maybe a little bit tired from his long match on Monday. "Because when you don't play for such a long time and you play your first match over three hours, it's really tough."
Mayer, who will now play Italian Potito Starace in Thursday's quarter-finals, was delighted with his form.
"I really played well from the baseline. I knew when I play my game I had a good chance to win today, and I took it," he said.
Last year's beaten finalist Richard Gasquet lined up a quarter-final with Serbian fourth seed Viktor Troicki after coming from a set down to oust Italian Andreas Seppi 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Troicki was too strong for Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, 6-2, 6-3.
Latvian third seed Ernests Gulbis overcame early resistance before extinguishing Russian Igor Andreev 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 and will next play Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine.
Stakhovsky knocked out the tournament seventh seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, 6-3, 6-4.
