Mladenovic, Vandeweghe lose opening matches at Kremlin Cup
MOSCOW (AP) Kristina Mladenovic and Coco Vandeweghe were among six seeded players to make an exit from the Kremlin Cup on Wednesday.
The run of defeats left seventh-seeded Julia Goerges, the world No. 27, as the highest-ranked player remaining.
Top-seeded Mladenovic landed only 49 percent of her first serves and was beaten 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 by Aliaksandra Sasnovich, while No. 2 seed Vandeweghe lost 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 to Lesia Tsurenko.
Mladenovic and Vandeweghe had both received byes in the first round.
Tsurenko's reward for beating Vandeweghe is a quarterfinal against Goerges, who beat Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-3.
Young Russian Natalia Vikhlyantseva put paid to the title hopes of her compatriot, third-seeded Elena Vesnina, winning 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Anastasija Sevastova lost 6-4, 6-3 to Irina-Camelia Begu.
Injuries also took their toll in a tournament which is the last of the season for many of the players taking part.
Daria Gavrilova, seeded sixth, retired when she was a set down to qualifier Vera Lapko. A day after ousting Maria Sharapova, the eighth-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova pulled out of her match with Alize Cornet after dropping the first set 6-1.
In the men's Kremlin Cup draw, the third-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino won his second-round match 6-3, 7-6 (4) against qualifier Lukas Rosol.
