Melbourne VIC, Australia, 12 October 2017 | tennis.com.au

Arina Rodionova battled for almost three hours before eventually going down at the WTA Tianjin Open in China.

At the rain-soaked event, Rodionova had originally been scheduled to play the Spaniard on Monday before finally taking to the court two days later for the first-round match.

Having come through qualifying and enjoying a career-best season, the Victorian entered the match in good form but found Sorribes Tormo too tough.

She fell 6-2 6-7(3) 6-4 in two hours and 43 minutes.

In Linz, Ajla Tomljanovic narrowly missed a chance to reach her first WTA quarterfinal in more than two years.

Facing Romanian qualifier Mihaela Buzarnescu, Tomljanovic held two match points in the 12th game of the second set.

Yet Buzarnescu escaped to hold serve, sent the set to a tiebreak, and never looked back.

She dominated the breaker and the deciding set to run out a 4-6 7-6(1) 6-1 winner, and will next face Belinda Bencic in the last eight.