Beijing - Double Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova went out of the WTA Shenzhen Open in the first round on Tuesday, retiring hurt in a shock exit for the world number six.
The second seed was broken twice as she lost the first set 6-2 against China's Zheng Saisai -- ranked 72 in the world -- in 41 minutes, and dropped out before a point was played in the second set.
It was Kvitova's second consecutive first-round exit in China, after she went out at the first hurdle at the China Open in October -- when she played on painkillers while suffering the ongoing effects of glandular fever.
Another unseeded home player also dumped out a higher-ranked player at the $500,000 WTA Shenzhen tournament on Tuesday, with Britain's Johanna Konta losing to Wang Qiang.
The number five seed, who reached the quarter-finals of the WTA Wuhan Open last year, took the first set but eventually lost 6-3, 3-6, 3-6 to the world number 110 in an hour and 50 minutes.
Australian-born Konta, aged 24, is currently ranked 48 in the world and last year reached the final 16 of the US Open. In Wuhan she beat the then-world number two Simona Halep before finally going out at the hands of seven-time Grand Slam singles winner Venus Williams.
There were no such problems for the Polish top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, the world number five who won the WTA Finals in Singapore in November.
She brushed aside Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic 6-4, 6-3, in little more than an hour.