Sania Mirza was shown the door by Dutch girl Michaella Krajicek in the first round of the $1.3 million Zurich Open WTA event here.
Sania, who made her comeback last week following a brief injury lay-off, conceded a 6-1, 6-4 defeat to Krajicek for another first-round exit after her forgettable performance at the Kremlin Cup, where she had lost to Gisela Dulko of Argentina.
The 30th-ranked Indian could convert only three of the eight break points, while wildcard entrant Krajicek clinched six of the seven that came her way.
This added to the woes of the Hyderabadi, who was clearly behind her opponent in terms of holding serve.
In the second round, the 33rd-ranked Krajicek will meet the winner of the match between ninth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli and qualifier Shuai Peng of China.
In doubles, Sania and Patty Schnyder of Switzerland will take on Peng and Meilen Tu of the USA.
In Monday’s other games, there were victories for Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, Tatiana Golovin of France and the Czech Republic’s Nicole Vaidisova.
While there were straight-set wins for Golovin and Vaidisova, Bondarenko rallied from the loss of the first set to power past local challenger Timea Bacsinszky 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Golovin put out Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-4 and Vaidisova was too strong for Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik, winning 6-4, 6-2.
Karlovic advances
Big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic continued his good run of form to dump former winner Marat Safin out of the Madrid Masters 6-3, 6-4 in the first round, reports Reuters from Madrid.
Karlovic, who won his third title of the season in Stockholm on Sunday, wrapped up the victory with his 17th ace of the match, overpowering the 2004 winner in 58 minutes.
The 28-year-old, at a career high 24 in the ATP rankings, earned a second round encounter with another Russian, fourth-seed Nikolay Davydenko.
Earlier, Spanish debutant Nicolas Almagro beat Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-4 to meet fifth seed Fernando Gonzalez in the second round, while Germany's Nicolas Kiefer overcame Stanilas Wawrinka 7-5, 6-3. He will play Russian 16th-seed Mikhail Youzhny next.
