Melbourne VIC, Australia, 20 February 2018 | tennis.com.au

Sam Stosur has overwhelmed her third consecutive opponent to take her place in the main draw of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Also on Monday, Arina Rodionova shut out Italy’s Jasmine Paolini to qualify for the Hungarian Ladies Open in Budapest.

Stosur, playing in qualifying at a WTA event for the first time since 2008, brushed aside Maria Sakkari 6-1 6-4.

Having beaten Ankita Raina and Christina McHale in her first two qualifying matches, this is the first time Stosur has scored three straight wins since Roland Garros in 2017, where she advanced to the fourth round.

Anett Kontaveit awaits Stosur in the first round of the main draw; the winner will take on Naomi Osaka.

Rodionova dropped just three games against Paolini, winning in 59 minutes to follow up her 6-0 6-2 destruction of Russian wildcard Sofya Lansere in the first round of qualifying.

In the first round of the main draw, the Victorian comes up against second seed Zhang Shuai.