Committing six double faults and serving below 50 per cent, Tamarine used her powerful groundstrokes to down her 151st ranked rival in their first round match that lasted just over an hour.

Tamarine, who climbed to 68 this week on the WTA rankings, traded several service breaks with Lisjak before moving to 4-3 with a break up.

The Thai held the next game to lead 5-3 and after wasting three set points in the eighth game successfully served out the opener.

The second set was one-way traffic with Tamarine managing three breaks to rocket to a 5-1 lead. She allowed the Croat to take one more game before closing out the match at 6-2. Tamarine will battle it out with Czech Iveta Benesova for a spot in the main draw.

In the men's singles, both Danai Udomchoke and Paradorn Srichaphan have been placed in the easier section of the draw. Danai, who is making his maiden appearance in the Masters Series main draw, is set to face German Simon Gruel, No 88 in the world.

Paradorn, searching for his first ATP match win in two months, will play Peru's Luis Horna. The two are split 1-1 in their head-to-head meetings with Horna winning their first match in 2004 before the

Thai returned the favour a year later.

However, Paradorn has not won a match since January due to tendonitis in his right wrist. He was on the sideline for two months before returning to the circuit two weeks ago in Indian Wells only to be crushed by Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-4 6-2 in round one.