Melbourne VIC, Australia, 28 July 2015 | tennis.com.au

Ajla Tomljanovic has kicked off her Brasil Tennis Cup campaign in style with a gritty win over Spanish qualifier Laura Pous-Tio.

The Queenslander defeated Pous-Tio 7-5 7-6(6) to advance to the second round, where she will meet either Czech Tereza Martincova or Dutch qualifier Quirine Lemoine.

Tomljanovic is the second seed at the International-level event in Florianopolis.

At the WTA 125K event in Nanchang, China, Aussie No.10 Alison Bai qualified for the biggest event of her career with two straight sets wins.

The second of those – a 6-3 6-1 victory over Lee Ya-Hsuan of Taiwan – set up a main-draw first-round showdown again No.5 seed Ying-Ying Duan of China.

Jelena Jankovic is the top seed.

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Marinko Matosevic fell at the final hurdle of qualifying.

Bidding to join Sam Groth as a second Aussie in the main draw of the ATP 250 event – the first of the US Open Series – Matosevic fell 7-5 6-2 to the in-form Denis Kudla, the top seed in qualifying.