Doha, Qatar, 17 February 2017 | AAP

Sam Stosur won her second-round clash against Barbora Strycova but was unable to back it up later in the day as rain continued to play havoc with the Qatar Total Open schedule.

Stosur led eighth seed Strycova 1-0 when their match was delayed by rain on Wednesday. She took the first set 6-3 before losing the second by the same margin and recovering to take the third 6-4.

It marked Stosur’s first victory over a top-20 opponent since beating Simona Halep in the fourth round of last year’s French Open.

The former US Open champion then pushed third seed Cibulkova in both sets of their clash but was unable to break through, going down 7-5 6-4 in what was the Slovakian’s 400th career win and first over Stosur.

“She was really fighting and really into the match,” Cibulkova said.

“It came down to a few points here and there; you can see from the scoreline that it was very tight.

“I tried to have a new tactic against Sam because I’d never beaten her before, and it was really working today.”

In the semifinals, Cibulkova faces the winner of the match between No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova and Zhang Shuai, who upset fifth seed Garbine Muguruza in the second round.