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After dismal results in Hobart and the Australian Open, Tammy eventually snapped her losing streak with a 6-2 7-6 (7-4) victory over the towering Uzbek, who handed the Thai a painful defeat in the Fed Cup in Bangkok last year.

 "Yeah!" exulted the Thai No 1 in response to question about her season's first win. "Honestly I wasn't thinking about a win going into the match because I didn't want to think ahead. My goal was to focus on one point at a time."

Both players were in a similar situation, having had a day to prepare after a long flight from Perth where they represented their countries in the Fed Cup tie last week.

 "It came down to who could adjust to the conditions faster. Akgul didn't play well in the first set but she did much better in the second. I was quite excited during the tie break and was elated to pull it off," said Tamarine, who faces Neuza Silva, an unfamiliar face from Portugal, today.

Although Tammy's win brought smiles to the mainly Thai crowd, Japanese and Slovak fans faced a depressing trudge back home.

Former world No 4 Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan, 38, suffered cramp in the third set and lost 6-2 4-6 6-4 to eighth seed Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia after two hours and 13 minutes. "I was disappointed because I was well prepared for this tournament. I don't know why I got cramp because I've rarely suffered fromit in the past. I have to find out what went wrong," said the veteran.

Third seed and world No 19 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia withdrew with flu and was replaced by Japanese "lucky loser" Ryko Fuda of Japan.

In second-round action, fifth-seeded Peng Shuai of China overcame a sluggish start to beat Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 and become the first player to book a quarter-final berth. Vera Dushevina of Russia upset fourth seed and 2007 champion Sybille Bammer of Austria 6-4 7-5.

In San Jose, Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwattana lost the battle of the twins against world No 1 Bob and Mike Bryan 6-0 6-3 in just 41 minutes in the US$436,000 SAP Open yesterday.