Svetlana Kuznetsova suffered the humiliation of a first round defeat to Shahar Peer in the Qatar Ladies Open on Tuesday just 48 hours after finishing runner-up to Caroline Wozniacki in Dubai.
The Russian former US and French Open champion paid the price for an error-prone display as the eighth seeded Israeli largely dominated to post a 6-2, 6-4 win.
Kuznetsova appeared to be dogged by a foot problem and received court-side treatment during the second set, but failed to come up with the consistency to match the determined Peer, currently ranked 12th in the world.
On a cool afternoon at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, Peer had three breaks in the first set as opposed to Kuznetsova's one as she established early control to take the first set with ease.
And although the Russian had a few moments of inspiration by securing the first break in game five to take a 3-2 lead in the second set, Peer only had to hang on to whatever chances came her way and wait for her rival to make mistakes.
Peer broke back in the very next game to draw level and then won her service game to take a 4-3 lead from where she never looked back.
Struggling to stay in the match, Kuznetsova had to keep her serve in the 10th game, but she put the ball wide twice to hand the match to Peer.
Meanwhile, Chinese players had mixed luck in the first round. While Shuai Peng defeated Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-2, Jie Zheng was beaten by Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-2.
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