The opened round’s play of the Brisbane International witnessed the purging of some big players. The upset bug trapped 4^th seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, before trapping former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki in the first round itself.

11^th-ranked Cibulkova continually struggled against young American powerhouse, Madison Keys, and eventually lost the match 7-5, 6-2 in an hour and 90 minutes.

Later, Lisicki squandered her first-set lead, as she went down fighting to Kazakh qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the opening round.

In the other matches, Jarmila Gajdosova defeated Shuai Zhang (6-4, 6-1), Alla Kudryavtseva toppled Bethanie Mattek-Sands (6-4, 6-2), and Daria Gavrilova beat Alison Riske (7-5, 6-3).

The series of upsets of continued with former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka bowing out of the tournament, losing to Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the first round.

(Image: livetennis.com)