Stephens beats Vekic in delayed Strasbourg clash

Second seed Sloane Stephens is into the second round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg after winning a deciding-set shoot-out in her interrupted contest with Donna Vekic.

With the scores level at a set apiece, Stephens and Vekic were unable to finish their first-round contest on Monday due to rain and bad light.

But Stephens dominated the decider upon the resumption on Tuesday, sealing a 5-7 6-2 6-2 victory on the clay in Alsace.

The day's only other first round clash lasted over three hours as seventh seeded Elena Vesnina outlasted Zheng Saisai to progress 7-5 2-6 7-6 (7-5).

Defending champion Sam Stosur is through to round three courtesy of a 6-3 7-6 (7-3) defeat of Hsieh Su-Wei.

"I served for it at 5-4 then lost serve," Stosur told the WTA website. "You just need to knuckle down and keep focused, think about what had been working in the match and get back to those things.

"It would have been hard having been serving for the match then playing a third set, and I lost serve again at 6-5. Then it was all about a good start in the tie-break."

Next up for Stosur is home hope and 10th seed Caroline Garcia, a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 winner over qualifier Jil Teichmann.