Indian Wells, CA, USA, 8 March 2018 | tennis.com.au

Sam Stosur fought back to beat American Lauren Davis and reach the second round in Indian Wells.

The Australian number three came through 3-6 6-3 6-3 in the Californian desert, extending her unbeaten record against Davis to 4-0.

Stosur, a former semi-finalist and doubles champion in Indian Wells, has now won four of her last five matches and will face French 14th seed Kristina Mladenovic in round two – another player Stosur leads 4-0 in career meetings.

Asked if her record against Davis played a part in Wednesday’s match, Stosur said: “Maybe towards the end of the second set that became a little bit more true, but I think the second and third I definitely came out playing a bit more aggressive.

“I love it here. Anywhere you’ve been able to play well in the past makes it good coming in every year.”

Davis took the first set with a run of four straight games after Stosur played a poor service game, dumping a backhand smash into the net to lose it to love, in game seven.

The Aussie responded with a key break at 3-2 in the second set, following a Davis double-fault, and saw out the set after coming through a tense game at 4-2.

And it was Stosur who made the decisive move in the third after breaks were swapped early on, edging a tight contest with a final tally of 24 winners and 33 unforced errors to 22-38 and 11 double-faults from the American.