Top seed Maria Sharapova beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4 6-2 in the second round of the Rome Masters to stay on course for the world number one spot. The Russian will replace Lindsay Davenport at the top of the rankings if she triumphs this week.
Meanwhile, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Likhovtseva and Tatiana Golovin joined the growing list of seeded casualties.
They were beaten by Argentina's Paola Suarez, Israel's Anna Smashnova and Serbian Ana Ivanovic respectively.
Suarez beat Russian fifth seed Kuznetsova 6-2 6-4, Smashnova defeated Russian 11th seed Likhovtseva 6-1 6-3 while Ivanovic beat France's Golovin, the 12th seed, 6-3 6-4.
While other top players fell by by the wayside, Sharapova was relieved to advance.
"Overall I don't think I played great tennis," Sharapova said. "I'm just happy to have won it."
The Wimbledon champion has often struggled to reproduce her best form on clay and has only reached two quarter-finals in her previous six tournaments on the surface.
MMIX
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