British number six Heather Watson came from behind to beat Yulia Putintseva in the first round of the Thailand Open.
Watson, 30, won 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7-5) in Hua Hin in a match that featured 14 breaks of serve and lasted three hours.
Kazakhstan’s Putintseva, 28, is 44th in the WTA rankings, 116 places above Watson.
Watson will play South Korea’s Na-Lae Han, who beat Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse, on Wednesday for a place in the quarter-finals.
This month Watson failed to qualify for the Australian Open for the first time since 2011.
Also on Tuesday, fellow Briton Harriet Dart failed to progress to the second round after being defeated by 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu.
Canadian Andreescu secured a comfortable 6-3 6-4 win over Dart and will face Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova next.
