The Wuhan Open has gobbled up yet more seeds with Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki and Elena Vesnina the latest to have been dumped out.
Britain's Johanna Konta arrived in China as fifth seed but was knocked out by Australia's Ashleigh Barty on Monday, while tournament second seed Simona Halep suffered defeat on Tuesday.
Ninth seed Radwanska experienced the same fate on Wednesday with Barty defeating the Pole 4-6 6-0 6-4 to progress to the quarter-finals.
Radwanska's world ranking had fallen from number three at the end of 2016 to 13 before the event in China, but she is far from being alone in suffering a shock defeat.
Seeded American pair Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys were also eliminated in the early stages in China, as US Open champion Stephens lost her first-round match in straight sets to world number 55 Wang Qiang.
US Open finalist Keys had earlier lost to qualifier Varvara Lepchenko.
Fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki was beaten by Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari on Tuesday night, before Sakkari went on to defeat another seed in the form of Vesnina on Wednesday to book a place in the quarter-finals.
In round one, Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitova suffered shock exits to Caroline Garcia and Peng Shuai respectively, while sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was also knocked out after a second-round loss to world number 45 Alize Cornet.
"Some of the girls are tired. Obviously it's the end of the season," 28-year-old Radwanska told AFP.
"Nobody's a machine here, you can just be exhausted after a couple of months playing tennis. These things happen,"
Incredibly, 12 of the 16 seeded players from the tournament are now out, including four of the top six.
Two qualifiers have also already booked a place in the quarter-finals in the shape of Barty and Sakkari.
"It's the end of the season, probably where certain players tend to be tired, but we've always had great winners," Fabrice Chouquet, co-tournament director at Wuhan said.
"Petra (Kvitova) twice, Venus (Williams) once, and that's just the nature of tennis."