Emma Raducanu’s first clay-court match of the season in Stuttgart concluded in a one-sided loss to former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

The British number one failed to deal with the Latvian’s aggressive hitting and was defeated 6-2 6-1 in 59 minutes.

Raducanu, who reached the event’s quarter-finals last year, will tumble down the rankings from her current position of 68.

In the final 16, Ostapenko will face Tunisia’s third seed Ons Jabeur.

Raducanu missed Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup loss to France last week to prepare for the clay-court season, but he was completely outplayed after being drawn in a difficult first round.

The 2021 US Open champion won the first game but was overwhelmed by her opponent’s strong hitting, losing the next five games and surrendering the first set.

Raducanu got to 0-30 on Ostapenko’s serve after holding serve at the start of the second set, but Ostapenko won 16 games in a row to take a 4-1 lead.

To Raducanu’s six, the 2017 French Open champion hit 26 winners.

In other news, Spain’s world number 31 Daria Kasatkina, the seventh seed, was thrashed by Paula Badosa. 6-1 6-1.

Men’s world number two Carlos Alcaraz, who lost the top spot to Novak Djokovic after losing in the semi-finals of the Miami Open, opened his clay-court season with a 6-3 6-1 triumph over Portugal’s Nuno Borges at the Barcelona Open.

However, American fifth seed Frances Tiafoe was defeated 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 by Finland’s world number 40 Emil Ruusuvuori.

Norwegian third seed Casper Ruud, a French Open finalist last year, defeated American Ben Shelton 6-2 7-6 (7-1).