Cincinnati, OH, USA, 16 August 2018 | tennis.com.au

Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic will resume her second-round match against Simona Halep on serve in the third set after rain washed out their night-time clash at the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday.

Tomljanovic had pushed the world No.1 all the way in a gruelling Centre Court battle in Cincinnati, winning the first set and going up 3-0 in the third before Halep worked her way back.

The two women will continue on Thursday with Tomljanovic serving down 6-4 3-6 3-4, 15-30.

.@Simona_Halep gets it tied up!

She takes the rally of the match to break Tomljanovic! #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/5IOyh2pjB5

— WTA (@WTA) August 16, 2018

Their match will resume not before 1pm local time (3am AEST) following the all-Canadian clash between Milos Raonic and Denis Shapovalov.

The winner of Tomljanovic-Halep will progress to a third-round meeting with Australian No.1 Ash Barty; the 16th seed beat qualifier Kaia Kanepi in straight sets earlier on Wednesday.

The suspension of the match came at a good time for Tomljanovic, who was struggling physically – she received an off-court medical timeout after the second set to treat a hip complaint – and had lost four games in a row to the surging Romanian in the third.

Earlier in the match, Tomjlanovic had troubled the error-prone Halep in the baseline exchanges, showcasing impressive power, depth and consistency to build an early 5-2 lead.

Although Halep won two games to close the gap, Tomljanovic sealed the first set before dropping serve three times to surrender the second.