Romanian top seed Simona Halep has survived an almighty first-round scare at the Australian Open, coming from a set down to beat Estonian Kaia Kanepi on Tuesday night.

Halep was knocked out of last year’s US Open by Kanepi and it looked as if history was going to repeat itself before last year’s beaten finalist rallied to win 6-7 (7-2) 6-4 6-2 in two hours and 11 minutes.

She’ll meet 20-year-old American Sofia Kenin for a place in the third round.