Beijing, Tokyo: World number five Tomas Berdych was stunned in straight sets by Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas as he became the latest seed to exit the rollercoaster China Open on Wednesday.

The second-seeded Czech, who won the rain-delayed Shenzhen Open final on Monday, was sent packing 6-4, 6-4 a little over 24 hours after arriving in Beijing and after only 107 minutes on court.

Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the fifth and eighth seeds, had also failed to negotiate the first round in what has been an eventful tournament so far. “I made one tournament title. The other one didn’t go my way,” shrugged Berdych after his first-round defeat to the 37th-ranked Cuevas.

“It’s always a difficult part of the year,” he added. “We have to travel a lot. The conditions are always very different, very difficult, week by week here in China. It’s not easy to adjust.”

It was a different story for Garbine Muguruza, who retired from last week’s Wuhan Open final against Venus Williams with an ankle problem but bounced back to beat Irina Falconi 6-2, 6-1.

The Spaniard, nicknamed “Mushroom” by Beijing fans because her name sounds like “mushroom” in Chinese, will now qualify for the WTA Finals if she wins her next match against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

“I think I want to finish in a good way the year. I want to go on holidays and say, Look, I had a great year, I did everything I could, to go off the court feeling that I did all my effort,” Muguruza said.

However, 13th seed Andrea Petkovic’s China Open is over after she was bundled out in three sets by Italy’s Sara Errani, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

With Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova both missing Beijing, the women’s draw has been prised wider open by the retirements of Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard, and Petra Kvitova’s early defeat.

In Tokyo, defending champion Kei Nishikori toppled giant American Sam Querrey 7-6, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Japan Open despite failing to really catch fire.

Second seed Nishikori, who was dazzling in a canary-yellow shirt, headband and sneakers, struggled with a swirling wind in the early skirmishes in Tokyo before discovering his mojo in the first-set tiebreak.

He raced through it 7-3 after a dipping forehand forced Querrey into a wild miss.

Nishikori then secured an early break in the second set with an exquisite drop shot to afford himself the breathing space required to truly find his range.

The home-grown talent finished in style, belting a backhand down the line to set up match point and plunging home the dagger with an acrobatic smash. He celebrated with a pump of the fist and a toothy grin at coach Michael Chang.

“It was very important to keep my focus against such a big server,” said Nishikori, who is bidding to win a third Japan Open in four years and next faces Croatia’s Marin Cilic, the player who beat him in the 2014 US Open final.

“The first-set tiebreak was key,” added Nishikori, chasing a fourth title of the year and the 11th of his career.

“After that I was able to relax a little and I think I played some pretty decent tennis. But I know it’s going to get much tougher from here.”

Third seed Gilles Simon blew past Czech Jiri Vesely 6-4, 6-2 to reach the last eight.

Seventh seed Feliciano Lopez from Spain had nothing left in the tank after reaching last week’s final in Kuala Lumpur and was dumped out 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 by Portugal’s Joao Sousa in a first-round match.