Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus caused a huge flutter by shocking fifth seed Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia in the first round of the US $175,000 WTA Sunfeast Open in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Poutchek won 6-3, 6-3 in a little over 90 minutes.
She meets the winner of the match between Ajberta Brianti of Italy and Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden in the pre-quarter-finals.
Israel's Czibora Obziller also paid scant respect to the rankings as she showed the door to ninth seeded Russian Yaroslava Shvedova after a marathon three-setter that lasted for two hours and 35 minutes. Obziller triumphed 7-6, 6-7, 6-1.
India's Sunitha Rao staged a strong rally after initial hiccups to march into the pre-quarter-finals. The wild card entrant beat lower ranked Indonesian Sandy Gumulya 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
In another match, Anastasia Rodionova of Russia raced to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic before few spectators at the Netaji Indoor stadium.
The tournament's injury blues continued as Edina Gallovits of Romania was forced to concede her match against Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan following a left thigh sprain she sustained during the match.
After losing the first set 2-6, Edina called it quits before the start of second.
Rodlonova will meet the victor of the match between second seed Daniela Hontuchova of Slovakia and Marta Domachowska of Poland, while Amanmuradova will take on the winner of the tie between Flavio Penetta of Italy and Indian wild card entry Tara Iyer for slots in the last eight.
The Poutchek-Kudryavtseva exchange saw the Belarus girl maintain an edge from the beginning with a fine all-round show.
Poutchek produced a better service and also earned points aplenty from her accurate returns.
In the first set, she broke the Russian in the fourth game and then held her on to win the set 6-3.
The fifth seed began poorly in the second set where she was broken in the opening game.
Though Kudryavtseva tried to put up a fight and managed to draw level breaking Poutchek in the fourth game, the Belarus girl, ranked 100 in the world, demolished her opponent in the seventh and ninth games to close the second set and match.
The Rodlonova-Sromova encounter saw the players trade service breaks in the first set.
The Russian broke Sromova in the first, third and fifth, while the Czech broke back in the fourth and sixth.
But Rodionova had the last laugh as she broke Sromova again in the ninth game to pocket the set.
In the second set, Rodionova raced to a 5-1 lead, breaking Sromova in the second and sixth games. The Czech girl then broke the Russian in the seventh, but lost serve in the next and bowed out of the competition.
The Indian pair of Isha Lakhani and Sanaa Bhambri fell at the first hurdle, going down to the Italian combination of S Errani and Flavio Pennetta in the opening round.
Errani and Penneta cruised to a straight set 6-2, 6-0 victory in only 54 minutes to canter into the quarter-finals.
The European duo broke Isha Lakahani in the third game, and gave the same treatment to Sanaa Bhambri in the fifth to pocket the opening set.
The visitors nearly toyed with the Indians in the second set which was over in 26 minutes.
The Indo-Canadian pair of Tara Iyer and Canadas Aleksandra Wozniak also bowed out of competition surrendering to Russia's J Efremova and Ekaterina Ivanova in straight sets 4-6, 5-7.
