Angelique Kerber crashes, Agnieszka Radwanska soars

Top seeds Agnieszka Radwanska and Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber crashed out of the Madrid Open in the first round in major setbacks ahead of Roland Garros.

Poland’s Radwanska, the number one seed in the absence of Serena Williams, lost 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3 to the rejuvenated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.

Radwanska, a semi-finalist in 2012 and 2014 in the Spanish capital, already knew the dangers posed by Cibulkova after her opponent came within a point of victory in their last meeting at Indian Wells in March.

Cibulkova, a former world number 10 and Australian Open runner-up, was always going to be a dangerous floater having won her fifth career title last time out in Katowice three weeks ago.

Second-seeded German Kerber was dumped out by the Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova 4-6, 2-6 with her defeat coming just a week after she had retained her title in Stuttgart.

However, Kerber was outplayed by world number 33 Strycova, whom she had beaten 6-1, 6-1 in Miami back in March.

Losses for Radwanska and Kerber mean Garbine Muguruza is the highest seed left at the key clay-court event and the fourth-ranked Spaniard sealed her place in round two with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Anna Schmiedlova.

Former world number one Victoria Azarenka stretched her winning streak to 15 matches after winning in Indian Wells and Miami as she overcame some stiff first set resistence from Britain’s Laura Robson to win 6-4, 6-2.