Pavlyuchenkova, of Russia, ranked 31st in the world, was actually the Estonian's most recent ladies doubles partner; the pair last played together in Brisbane last week, where they were knocked out by Ashleigh Barty and Kiki Bertens in three sets.

In the first set at the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre, Kontaveit had several break points against the Russian, but was unable to capitalize on them, and the score was soon 4.1 to Pavlyuchenkova.

While Kontaveit held her serve in the next game, Pavlyuchenkova did the same in the following game taking the set 6:2.

In the second set, Kontaveit was soon 3:0 behind, but managed to pull things level to 3:3, before losing the next game. Kontaveit required attention from a physio after that, taking a medical break to have the back of her right leg taped, according to ERR's sports portal.

Kontaveit came close to breaking her opponent's serve in the next game, but was unable to. With the games soon at 5:4, Pavlyuchenkova made two double faults, but still hung on to take the final game, thus the set 6.4, and the entire match.

Kontaveit served up two double faults to her opponent's six, but only won around half the number of service points (22 to 41) and had a 60 per cent and 50 per cent first and second service success rate, compared with the Russian's 59 percent and 63 percent respectively.

The tournament is a warmup for the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne on January 20.

All the recent Australian tennis competitions have gone ahead despite the widespread bush fires devastating the country. Australian players, including world men's number two Nick Kyrgios, have helped to raise money towards the relief efforts.

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