The Ivorian, who clinched the gold medal in the division at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, suffered defeat to Icaro Migel Soares of Brazil at the Wuxi Taihu International Expo Centre.

Soares will go on to play Hwan Nam-goong of South Korea for a place in the semi-finals.

Aaron Cook, who used to compete for Britain before switching to Moldova following a selection row, also suffered an early exit from the under-80kg tournament as he lost to Nikita Rafalovich of Uzbekistan.

Rafalovich's reward is a meeting with Russian top seed number one seed Maksim Khramtcov in the quarter-finals.

Reigning champion and number one seed Ruth Gbagbi of Ivory Coast safely progressed to the quarter-finals of the women's under-67kg category

The Olympic silver medallist set up a meeting with South Korea's Oh Hye-ri after she overcame Jie Song of China 2-0 in the preliminary round.

Second seed Nur Tatar Askari of Turkey was made to work hard for her quarter-final place as she needed golden score to get past China's Pan Gao.

Taoyuan Grand Prix champion Paige McPherson of the United States and Britain's Manchester Grand Prix winner Lauren Williams also reached the last eight.

In the women's over-67kg competition, China's Chen Li edged Raphaella Galacho of Brazil to book a quarter-final clash against pre-tournament favourite Bianca Walkden of Britain.

Walkden's team-mate Rebecca McGowan was among the other athletes to progress and will face second seed Shuyin Zheng after defeating Kazakhstan's Cansel Deniz.

Dmitriy Shokin of Uzbekistan is set to go up against South Korean number one seed In Kyo-don in the over-87kg quarter-finals as he defeated Mahama Cho of Britain, whose compatriot Lutalo Muhammad fared better after he beat Russian-born Azerbaijani player Radik Isaev.

Winners will receive cash prices of $70,000 (£55,000/€61,500), runners-up will win $20,000 (£16,000/€17,500) and bronze medallists will win $5,000 (£4,000/€4,500), making the Grand Slam the richest event in World Taekwondo's portfolio of tournaments.