Monterrey, Mexico, 3 March 2020 | tennis.com.au

Astra Sharma won through to the second round of the WTA tournament in Monterrey, Mexico on Monday with a straight-sets win over Nina Stojanovic.

The West Australian beat the 82nd-ranked Serb 6-4 6-4 to set up a second-round meeting with No.8 seed Wang Yafan.

It is Sharma’s first tour-level main-draw win since June, and some much-needed momentum as she continues to find her feet again following knee surgery in November.

Sharma fell in the final round of qualifying to Giulia Gatto-Monticone, the second straight week she’d lost to the Italian after also losing their qualifying match in Acapulco.

But she rebounded impressively on Monday in Monterrey, winning 76 per cent of her first serve points to emerge victorious in under 90 minutes.

“I thought I served really well today. I thought I took pretty good use of the opportunities given to me and just tried to play a bit more free and loose than yesterday. I thought it was a pretty good turnaround,” Sharma told tennis.com.au.

“Nina’s a really aggressive player so it’s tough; she’s putting a lot of pressure on me. But overall I thought I played pretty well.

“It was good, it was definitely a bit of a boost.”

The other Aussie in action on the WTA tour this week, Priscilla Hon, fell 6-2 6-0 to in-form qualifier Jaqueline Cristian at the inaugural event in Lyon, France.

Meanwhile, Sam Stosur returns to action for the first time since the Australian Open when she takes on Vera Zvonareva in the second round of the WTA 125K tournament at Indian Wells.

Stosur, the 15th seed, received a first-round bye.