For the second straight day, Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic has started slowly but roared home to win through at the WTA’s Stanford Classic in California.

Tomljanovic reached the quarter-finals on Wednesday, contending with heavy crowd support for seventh seed American Madison Keys in a 1-6 6-4 6-1 victory.

It came a day after she took time to warm up before rattling off 12 straight games in a first-round 3-6 6-0 6-0 triumph over Russian Vitalia Diatchenko.

“That was tough. I thought I’d be off that court in 35 minutes,” Tomljanovic said. “She played so well in the first set, I felt like I wasn’t even in it.”

Tomljanovic refocused on holding serve and eventually got herself back into it.

“I’m already considering this a great week,” Tomljanovic said. “When you go through bad stretches, you learn to appreciate wins even more.”

The Croatian-born Tomljanovic will next face either Kimiko Date-Krumm or Karolina Pliskova for a place in the semi-finals at the hardcourt tournament.

Meanwhile, American Alison Riske beat third-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4 6-4 to also reach the quarter-finals.

“I’ve had a lot of good matches against top players that have helped my confidence,” Riske said. “I wasn’t winning but I was playing good tennis.”

“I always like playing in California.

“I wish there were more tournaments here. The weather is perfect and I played here my first year on the tour and enjoyed it. I needed to change my schedule.”

Germany’s Mona Barthel topped sixth-seeded compatriot Andrea Petkovic 5-7 6-2 7-6 (7-4).

Barthel, who has lost her first round match in 12 of 17 tournaments played this year, could next play top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who makes her first appearance on Thursday night.