Suzan Lamens overcame Slovenian qualifier Veronika Erjavec and a prolonged weather delay to progress to the second round of the Australian Open on her Grand Slam debut.

The 25-year-old, who took over from Arantxa Rus as Dutch number one on the eve of the tournament, came back from a break down to win the first set 7-5 just before the match was stopped for rain.

Lamens had her service broken again after the players came back on court six hours later, but she turned the match around before winning on a tie-break.

“It was a long day and a hard-fought match, but I reached a new milestone,” she said. Lamens will now play former US Open semi-finalist Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who knocked out the 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko in round one.

Rus, meanwhile, was unable to match Lamens’ performance as she lost in straight sets to Serbia’s Olga Danilovic.

The top two Dutch men both play their first-round matches on Tuesday. Tallon Griekspoor takes on the 18th seed, Hubert Hurkacz of Hungary, while Botic van de Zandschulp has been drawn against home favourite and world number eight, Alex de Minaur.