Anastasia Myskina's preparations for the defence of her French Open title suffered another setback on Wednesday as she lost to 15-year-old Czech Nicole Vaidisova in the Family Circle Cup second round.
World number one Lindsay Davenport, defending champion Venus Williams and former number one Justine Henin-Hardenne advanced but Myskina's poor form continued as she suffered her second early exit in as many weeks losing 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to the teenager.
Suffering with a cold, the Russian looked out of sorts, spraying groundstrokes long and wide and struggling with her serve in the gusty conditions.
Vaidisova, the world number 49, attacked Myskina's second serve to great effect, taking the opening set and breaking to lead 4-3 in the second.
Nerves set in, however, and Myskina, beaten in the third round at Amelia Island last week, levelled the match.
But though the Russian fought back from a break down to 4-4 in the third set, Vaidisova broke again and converted her third match point for victory.
"It's a good win for me," Vaidisova said.
"It's the highest seed I've beaten and it gives me great confidence for my next matches."
Myskina was disgusted with her performance.
"With this bad game I had today, it still went to a third set and I think that's pretty amazing," she said.
"We had no rallies, it was just me making all the mistakes. She served pretty well but that's all she's got."
"I want to play my best every tournament but it's not really happening right now. Deep inside I'm really upset but I'm really looking forward to the next (few) weeks and hopefully it's going to change."
DAVENPORT CRUISES
Top seed Davenport, chasing back-to-back titles on clay for the first time after her victory at Amelia Island, cruised past world number 129 Marie-Eve Pelletier of Canada 6-2, 6-2 to set up a clash with another qualifier, Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine.
"Coming off a long week last week, it's nice to just have a quicker match," Davenport said.
"I've played so much tennis though that I feel good and I like the court quite a bit. It's playing much faster than it has in years past, so I think that will help me to keep going."
In the night match, Venus Williams opened the defence of her title with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over Czech Denisa Chladkova.
The American, seeded fourth, had to save four set points before taking the first set on a tiebreak, but then raced through the second to set up a showdown with 17-year-old Tatiana Golovin of France, the 13th seed.
Henin-Hardenne was forced to dig deep for the second match in succession as she scrambled past 19-year-old Peng, the world number 48, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
The Belgian, who returned to action last month after more than six months out with a mystery virus and a knee injury, led 6-2 4-2 before Peng fought back to force a deciding set.
But Henin-Hardenne held off the 19-year-old to set up a third-round clash with unseeded Czech Iveta Benesova.
"Even at 6-2, 4-2 it wasn't an easy match," Henin-Hardenne said. "I didn't know her but now I do and I think she's unbelievable. She is really quick and has great hands."
Henin-Hardenne, who edged out 10th seed Jelena Jankovic in round one, added: "Winning is always the most important thing but I need matches. I want to play a lot of matches before the French Open so I can find my rhythm on clay."
Former French Open champion Mary Pierce, seeded 15, suffered a surprise 6-4, 7-6 loss to unseeded Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives.
Eighth seed Patty Schynder had no such trouble as she beat Marta Marrero of Spain 6-2, 7-5, while 11th seed Ai Sugiyama also won through.
