Holder Belinda Bencic ran off the first 19 points against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova before collapsing to a 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 loss on Tuesday at the Dubai Championships.
Another former champion, the 2017 and 2018 winner Elina Svitolina, also fell, 6-2, 6-1, to US qualifier Jennifer Brady.
Pavlyuchenkova could not have made a worse start.
“It’s tennis, sometimes it happens,” the 31st-ranked Russian said “You go out there and you just don’t feel anything.
