Home grown defending champion Marie Bouzkova failed to get her campaign under way at the Livesport Prague Open on Monday, when she was upset in her opening round by Jaqueline Cristian, 6-4 4-6 6-4.
Bouzkova, who was born and raised in Prague, won this WTA 250 hard court tournament last year, which was her first tour singles title.
Cristian, who is unseeded and comes from Romania, beat the Czech for the fist time in their 4 encounters, breaking serve 8 times out of 14 chances to win after 2 hours and 47 minutes on court.
Following the departure of Bouzkova, 6 more Czechs are vying for a spot in Round of 16, including Barbora Strycova, Linda Noskova, Barbora Palicova and Lucie Havlickova.
Meanwhile, 7th-seed Xinyu Wang from China also fell at the first hurdle, as Slovakian qualifier Viktoria Hruncakova (née Kuzmova) rallied for a 3-6 6-3 7-6(5) win, taking 2 hours and 18 minutes.
In an…