Moscow, Russia, 17 October 2018 | Tennis Australia

Daria Gavrilova and Nick Kyrgios made progress on a good day two for Australia at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Gavrilova, the runner-up in 2016, saw off Russian lucky loser Vitalia Diatchenko 7-6(5) 7-5 on Tuesday.

World No.117 Diatchenko broke back when Gavrilova served for the match in the second set, but the Australian closed it out three games later with her fifth break of the match.

She goes on to face Britain’s Johanna Konta, who impressed in a 6-3 7-5 win over Belgian seventh seed Elise Mertens.

Kyrgios earlier defeated another Russian, world No.73 Andrey Rublev, 6-3 4-6 6-4 to claim his place in round two.

Twenty-five aces and a 75% success rate on first serves fired the Aussie through to a meeting with Mirza Basic

There were also doubles wins for Ajla Tomljanovic, alongside Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina, and Anastasia Rodionova, partnering Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine.