Daria Gavrilova has staged a tense fightback to join fellow Australian Samantha Stosur in the second round of the French Open in Paris.

Gavrilova, the women’s 24th seed, battled back from a set and a service break down to defeat Romanian Sorana Cirstea 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 in a niggly encounter on Tuesday.

The world No.25 looked like suffering her third consecutive first-round defeat at Roland Garros before turning the match around after a 45-minute rain delay.

Trailing 2-0 in the second set and again fighting some mentals demons, the 24-year-old pulled herself together to progress to a second-round meeting with American Bernarda Pera.

Stosur earlier powered into the second round for the 12th straight year with a 6-2 6-4 victory over former US Open semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer.

Unseeded for the first time in Paris for the first time in a decade, Stosur clubbed 21 winners, five aces and broke Wickmayer five times in another typically strong start to her 14th Open campaign.

The four-time semi-finalist and 2010 runner-up next plays either Polona Hercog or Romania or Russian 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

A third-round showdown with 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza looms large after the Spanish third seed also scored an impressive straight-sets victory on Tuesday – 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 over 2009 winner Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Victories for Stosur and Gavrilova finally restored some pride to Australian tennis following first-round defeats for Bernard Tomic, Jordan Thompson and Ajla Tomjlanovic.

John Millman, James Duckworth and Matt Ebden added to the Australian exodus on Tuesday.

Millman succumbed 7-5 6-4 6-2 to Canadian prodigy Denis Shapovalov after holding handy leads in the first two sets on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

He blew a 5-2 advantage in the opening set, then a 3-1 buffer in the second.

Continuing his comeback from foot surgery, Duckworth put up a fight against third seed Marin Cilic on centre court before bowing out 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-4) to the 2018 Australian Open finalist and 2017 Wimbledon runner-up.

Resuming his match that was suspended at two sets a piece on Monday night due to thunderstorms, Ebden eventually lost 6-4 5-7 6-2 3-6 6-2 to Italian Thomas Fabbiano.

Australian No.1 Ashleigh Barty and wildcards Alex de Minaur and Isabelle Wallace play later.