WTA Tour

MELBOURNE, Australia - With Sorana Cirstea's upset of reigning US Open champion Sam Stosur in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday, a bizarre trend continued. After only happening five times from 1968 (the start of the Open Era) through 2009, three times in the last two years a reigning Grand Slam champ has lost their opener at their next major. On top of that, the last four major titlists have lost in the first or second round of their next Slam.

"We all saw what happened last year and now I've kind of gone through that same trend," Stosur said. "I don't know why. Part of it is just that heightened expectation of wanting to do well. At least for the other girls, it was tournaments straight after. I struggled the couple weeks after the US Open and then finished well at the Championships, had a month off, then trained for a month. I don't know why it seems to be happening more often than not right now. I'm sure if we could all change the way we've responded straight after winning a Grand Slam, we would have."

Here is the full list of all major champions in the Open Era who lost their opener at the next Slam in which they appeared:

Notes: From 1977-1985, the Australian Open was the last Grand Slam of the year ... Goolagong Cawley's loss at the '80 Australian Open was technically in the second round, as she had a first round bye ... In addition to the last two major champs losing their openers at their next Slam, '11 Australian Open champ Kim Clijsters and '11 French Open champ Li Na lost in the second round of their next majors.