World number two dumped out of Madrid Open

Simona Halep's preparations for the French Open were dealt a huge blow on Sunday as the world number two was beaten in Madrid.

The Romanian was runner-up to Maria Sharapova 12 months ago, but there will be no repeat after she was knocked in the first round by Alize Cornet.

After a tight opening set " that saw Halep waste a set point " the 23-year-old lost her way in the tie-break and was unable to rectify the situation as Cornet broke twice in the second to seal a 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 win.

With only three weeks until the year's second grand slam begins at Roland Garros, Halep will hope for a quick upturn in her form if she is to reach match her feat of reaching the final in Paris for a second successive year.

Defending champion Sharapova had no such problems as she cruised past Timea Bacsinszky 6-2 6-3, but 12th seed Angelique Kerber is also out after a 4-6 6-3 6-3 defeat to Sam Stosur.

World number five " and fifth seed " Caroline Wozniacki continued the form that saw her reach the final in Stuttgart with a comprehensive 6-3 6-0 win over Jarmila Gajdosova, and Carla Suarez Navarro beat Zarina Diyas 6-4 6-4.

Sunday also saw top seed Serena Williams breeze past her American compatriot Madison Brengle in under an hour, the two-time winner progressing 6-0 6-1.

Brengle only won 11 points in the opening set and, although she took the first game in the second, Williams reeled off six on the bounce again to set up a second-round meeting with another American, Sloane Stephens.

She will be joined in the next round by fellow seeds Petra Kvitova " who secured her first win on clay this year " Andrea Petkovic, Sara Errani and Karolina Pliskova, but Venus Williams was beaten 6-3 7-5 by the returning Victoria Azarenka.

Things did not go so well for sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard either, the Canadian continuing her miserable form as Barbora Strycova came from a set down to win 0-6 6-3 6-3.

On a busy day of competition a total of 24 matches were played in the Spanish capital, with straight-sets wins for Tsvetana Pironkova, Ajla Tomljanovic, Caroline Garcia, Garbine Muguruza, Elina Svitolina, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Varvara Lepchenko and Christina McHale.

Meanwhile, Roberta Vinci, Coco Vandeweghe, Julia Goerges and Mariana Duque-Marino all needed three sets to book their place in the next round, the latter beating Heather Watson, who spurned six match points, 13-11 in the deciding tie-break.