Rising Chinese star Peng Shuai prevailed to beat Australia's Nicole Pratt in a first round thriller at the rain-interrupted DFS Classic in Birmingham.

Peng came back from one set down to beat the Aussie 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in a marathon match that lasted one hour and 45 minutes.

China's Yuan Meng, however, suffered an early exit from the tournament after losing to Slovakian Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.

In other first-round results, 14th seed Sania Mirza of India beat Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and Bethanie Mattek of the United States advanced past Germany's Julia Schruff 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-1.
 
(CRI June 14, 2006)