Dinara Safina finally appears destined to lose her position as world number one with a shocking defeat to wildcard Shuai Zhang.
Serena set to take top spot as Venus falls
Dinara Safina finally appears destined to lose her position as world number one with a shocking defeat in the second round of the China Open.
The Russian, who is still without a Grand Slam title, crashed out to wild card entry Shuai Zhang, who is ranked only 226 in the world, after losing her first round match to another qualifier at last week's Pan Pacific Open.
It means Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams will move to the top of the rankings if she overcomes Ekaterina Makarova in her second round match at the Olympic tennis centre on Tuesday.
Shuai claimed a 7-5 7-6 triumph over Safina despite the top seed being given a number of chances, particularly in the second set where she was a break ahead before wasting a set point.
"I'm just having some bad losses right now," the Russian said. "So many matches that are very close, ones that I should win, having set points or match points every time.
"It's very disappointing. I would like to take a break now, and I'm very upset with myself."
Venus out
World number three Venus Williams also went out after suffering her second consecutive defeat by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in just two weeks.
The American was previously thrashed by the talented 18-year-old in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo ahead of the match in Beijing, which saw Williams unable to even the score as the Russian claimed a 3-6 6-1 6-4 triumph.
The 29-year-old struggled to snatch her first round win over Russia's Vera Dushevina but clawed her way to victory despite an inconsistent display.
But 39-ranked Pavlyuchenkova proved more resilient and broke Williams, who had 14 double faults, to go up 3-1 in the second set before surging forwards to force the decider.
The Russian broke Williams again in the first game of the third set and went on to dominate play, with the seven-time Grand Slam champion erratically firing ground strokes both into the net and beyond the baseline.
Pavlyuchenkova was battling her nerves when serving the match at 5-2, and double-faulted to lose the game at love. Williams maintained her serve, but the Russian regained composure to conclude the match with a forehand winner.
"She started way aggressive today. She wanted to kill me, I guess," Pavlyuchenkova said. "I had nothing to lose. I just tried to move her around as much as I could, just hit as hard as I could in the court and just enjoy the match."
In the first round, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova took a comfortable 7-5 6-2 win over Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro and American Vania King defeated Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva 6-4 6-3.
