Russian-born Australian Daria Gavrilova marched into the second-round of the Sydney International on Sunday night with an impressive 6-3 6-0 win over rising Swiss star star Belinda Bencic.
The Melbourne-based wildcard, who will represent her adopted nation at next week's Australian Open, progressed in the second of only two matches that took place on Ken Rosewall Arena following a day of heavy rain in Sydney.
The 20-year-old is a former junior world No.1 and the girlfriend of Australian player Luke Saville and was too good for the world No.30 Bencic who is regarded as one of the brightest talents in the game.
Gavrilova is now likely to meet German fifth seed Angelique Kerber in the second round.
A four-and-a-half hour rain delay created havoc with the tournament schedule with just 11 of the 19 slated matches completed on the opening day.
One of the games to be moved was Samantha Stosur's clash with Lucie Safarova which will now take place from 12pm on Monday (AEDT).
World No.21 Stosur and Safarova were due to be third on court at Ken Rosewall Arena, but with the match unlikely to start before 9pm, tournament officials took the decision to push it back until day two.
Stosur needs to find some form before heading to the Australian Open after crashing out in the opening round in Brisbane last week.
She faces a difficult task against the Czech left-hander Safarova, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and holds a 9-2 record over Stosur. "There's no easy first-round matches," Stosur said.
"This is one of the toughest draws of the whole year.
"But I guess one of the great things about this tournament going into a grand slam is you're going to match up against some of the best players in the world and you're going to see where you're stacked against them."
Victory for Stosur would likely set up a second-round clash with fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki who will face Barbora Strycova-Zahlavova in her opening match.
Australian wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova also had her match switched and will now face German Andrea Petkovic on Court Three on Monday morning.
Play at Sydney Olympic Park didn't get underway until 6.15pm when world No.30 Madison Keys of the US caused a minor shock by beating Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 6-4.
Defending champion Tsvetana Pironkova progressed with the Bulgarian brushing aside America's Nicole Gibbs 6-3 6-1.
Australia's John-Patrick Smith won his way through to the first round with victory over Andrey Golubev in his qualifying match.
The 25-year-old Queenslander prevailed 6-3 6-7 7-6 to set up a clash with Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan on Monday.
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