Carlos Moya and Anastasia Myskina both slumped out of the Sydney International on Tuesday, jolting their preparations for next week's Australian Open.
French Open champion Myskina suffered a shock second-round defeat by little-known Chinese qualifier Shuai Peng while Moya was sent packing by Czech Radek Stepanek.
Shuai, ranked 80th in the world, raced to a 6-1, 6-3 triumph as Myskina struggled to cope with the hot and windy conditions at the Olympic tennis centre.
Russia's first female Grand Slam winner committed a whopping 46 unforced errors to leave her short on match practice heading to Melbourne.
"The conditions were tough but that's no excuse," she said.
"I'm not confident but I have to look forward to the Australian Open. It's one more week so I will have time for some practice."
Moya had flown straight to Sydney after winning the Chennai Open on Sunday and donating his prizemoney to the tsunami relief fund.
The Spanish Davis Cup hero looked to have his first round encounter with Stepanek under control when he won six games on the trot to take the first set before falling 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Men's champion Lleyton Hewitt rebounded from his early exit at last week's Australian hardcourt championship in Adelaide to crush Slovak Karol Beck 6-1, 6-2 in the first round.
Hewitt cruised to victory in 67 minutes to set up a meeting with Arnaud Clement after the Frenchman beat Czech Tomas Zib 6-1, 6-3.
"That was pretty good. I felt like I moved the ball around well," Hewitt said
"I've done all the hard work leading into the Australian Open so now it's really just about keeping the confidence levels up."
Australian hardcourt champion Joachim Johansson of Sweden continued his fine form with a 6-4, 6-3 win over big-serving Briton Greg Rusedski while Adelaide runner-up, American Taylor Dent, defeated Spaniard Santiago Ventura 7-5, 7-6.
