Beijing, China, 3 October 2016 | AAP/tennis.com.au

Sam Stosur has suffered her second straight first-round exit, winning just three games in a heavy loss to Shuai Zhang in the China Open in Beijing.

A week after a straight-sets defeat in the first round of the Wuhan Open to Caroline Wozniacki, world No.19 Stosur went down 6-1 6-2 to local hope Zhang on Sunday.

The Australian struggled on serve, hitting five double faults, being broken six times and winning just a quarter of points on second serve.

After dropping the first set in under half an hour, Stosur looked to have settled somewhat when she broke Zhang for the first time in the match to begin the second set.

She relinquished serve in the very next game.

Stosur sprayed 22 errors during the loss, which lasted just over one hour.

It threatened to be an even quicker defeat, yet she managed to save two match points in the final game against the relentless Zhang to extend the match slightly.

It was Stosur’s second consecutive loss to doubles partner and friend Zhang – who is ranked 38th in the world – after falling to the Chinese No.1 in straight sets in the second round of the US Open last month.

Zheng next faces American Alison Riske, who upset No.15 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.