Kanepi, ranked 46th in the world, faced three break points during the one-hour-15-minute encounter in the tournament – a warm-up for the French Open which starts later this month – and rescued all of them, serving up seven aces against Rakhimova, ranked 104th in the world, though committed nine double faults.

Kanepi, 36, from Haapsalu, faces the winner from Christina McHale (U.S., 159th in the world) and 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic).

Meanwhile top Estonia player Anett Kontaveit is set to face Petra Martic (Croatia) in round two of the top-level WTA1000 category tournament in Rome.

The world number five received a bye for round one while Martic, ranked 47th in the world and who had had to qualify for the main event, and overcame Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic in a two-hour long, three-setter, 6:2, 3:6, 6:1.

The pair have played twice before, both encounters in 2020 and with a record of one apiece.

Kontaveit won the most recent game, 6:2, 6:4, also in Italy – in the Palermo tournament.

The winner will face anyone out of Briton Emma Raducanu, ranked 12th in the world, and Bianca Andreescu (Canada, 121st), who have yet to play in round one, or Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain, 35th in the world) and Nuria Parrizas Diaz (Spain, 351st) who also face-off in round one.

Monday's freshly-published WTA rankings saw Kontaveit back in fifth place, her career-high so far, while Kaia Kanepi is back in the top 50 for the first time since 2018.

The top four are  Iga Swiatek (Poland),  Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic), Paula Badosa (Spain) and Maria Sakkari (Greece).

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