Australia’s Sam Stosur has booked a place in the next round of the Dubai Tennis Championships with a 6-3 6-1 win over Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

Fellow former grand slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova went through on a walkover when her opponent, Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, retired while down 4-1 in the opening set with a back injury.

Wildcard Flavia Pennetta of Italy survived four match points in the second set before pulling off a 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 first round win over lucky loser Julia Goerges of Germany.

“I was almost crying on the court today because I was feeling so bad,” Pennetta said.

The 10th-seeded Pennetta trailed 5-2 in the second set at Dubai Tennis Stadium but held serve and went on to close out the set with an ace in the tiebreaker.

Pennetta led 4-1 in the decider before Goerges briefly rallied.

Sabine Lisicki of Germany fired a total of 16 aces to win her first singles match in 2015, beating Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-3 6-4.

“I obviously had three tough losses at the beginning of the year, all tough three setters, and you always want to get the first win of the year and I did finally,” said Lisicki, who finished with three straight aces.