Second seed Vera Zvonareva was the first to fall losing in straight sets to Czech 16th seed Petra Kvitova 1-6 4-6 in their third round clash on Manalo Santana stadium.

Zvonareva was out of sorts against a player who was going for and making her shots the majority of the time.

Amongst the seeds tumbling out of the tournament on Wednesday were three former world number one players. Russian Dinara Safina found recent Stuttgart champion Julia Goerges of Germany too much to handle with Goerges triumphing in three sets of error-laden tennis 6-4 4-6 6-4 in their two hours and 20 minutes second round encounter.

"Dinara was No.1 in the world so we know she's one of the best competitors on the tour," said Goerges after the match. "Every ball was tough from her and she makes the game pretty tough for everybody so I did expect a tough match, for sure."

Goerges will now face current world number one Caroline Wozniacki in a rematch of their recent Stuttgart final which the less experienced Goerges unexpectedly won.

"Of course I have some confidence but Caroline is No.1 in the world," she continued. "I have the biggest respect for her and she deserves to be No.1. Every match is new, every game is new. I have to be focused like last time."

Seventh seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic also exited the second round in three sets, losing to Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-4 4-6 5-7.

In the last match played in Madrid on Wednesday Russian Maria Sharapova was hoping to continue with her recent run of form that has seen her able to once again grace the top 10 players in the world rankings after a notable absence.

But - under the floodlights of Manalo Santana Stadium 8th seed Sharapova was unable to progress and found Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova a little more consistent in a topsy-turvy match that saw both players struggling to hold serve. In the end Cibulkova had that little bit more and won 7-5 6-4 to advance to the next round.