Defending champion Simona Halep of Romania and second seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain lost their respective second round matches in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday, leaving the tournament without any of its eight top seeded players.

The 2015 Shenzhen Open Winner Halep, who also lost to the Chinese tennis sensation Zhang Shua in the opening round of the recently concluded Australian Open, suffered another early round loss and an untimely elimination anew.

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The Women's Tennis Association's current world No. 3 Halep was expelled by the Serbian Ana Ivanovic,  7-6 (2), 6-2, while the current fifth top player in world Muguruza suffered a surprising 7-6 (3), 6-3 defeat to the Ukranian Elina Svitolina, who is ranked world No. 21.

The other seeded players of the tournament, who were eliminated in the first round of the tennis competition, include the WTA's current world No. 8 Petra Kvitova. The Czech also lost to the American Madison Brengle, who currently holds the No. 60 rank,  0-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3. Kvitova is the fourth seeded player of the tourney. 

Third-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain (world No. 11) got a shocker 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 from Caroline Garcia of France, who currently ranks 38^th in the world, while the fifth seed of the tournament Belinda Bencic bowed out to the veteran and former world No. 1 Jelena Jancovic of Serbia 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

The Dubai Tennis Open was the first time for the 18-year-old Bencic to play as a member of the elite after reaching the number nine ranking with last weekend's St Petersburg final.

Sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic yielded to the 24-year-old American Coco Vandeweghe 7-6, 6-1. The Italian Roberta Vinci, who entered the tournament as seventh-seed, lost to the Russian-born Kazakhstani Yaroslava Shvedova 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in their opening round match.

The eighth- seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was also eliminated in the first round after her loss to Julia Goerges of Germany 6-0, 6-1.

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