Caroline Wozniacki overcame injury and illness to beat Sam Stosur in the second round of the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday.

The third seed from Denmark has been under the weather since arriving in Dubai, but battled back to beat Stosur 4-6 6-1 7-5 despite also suffering a recurrence of a knee problem.

World number five Wozniacki broke the Australian seven times and saved seven break points to prevent an early exit from the tournament.

The first six games went with serve, but it was Stosur who gained the upper hand when she claimed breaks either side of Wozniacki's solitary break of the first set.

Wozniacki called for the trainer and that appeared to do the trick as she raced into a 5-0 lead in a one-sided second set before levelling the match.

Stosur was immediately up against in when she was broken in the first game of the decider and held only twice to crash out after saving two match points and claiming another three breaks of her own.

Top seed Simona Halep cruised into the third round in a hurry by thrashing Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 6-0 in only an hour and 14 minutes.

Hantuchova won the Pattaya Open for a record third time on Sunday, but she was brought back down to earth with a bang two days later by ruthless world number four Halep.

Second seed Petra Kvitova was given a scare as she was forced to come from behind to beat Elina Svitolina 2-6 6-3 6-2.

Ana Ivanovic, the fourth seed, had no such trouble as she outclassed Sabine Lisicki 6-0 6-3 in only 66 minutes, while fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska was made to work for a 6-3 2-6 6-3 victory against Caroline Garcia.

Jelena Jankovic, Andrea Petkovic, Shuai Peng were the only seeds to bow out following defeats at the hands of Garbine Muguruza, Zarina Diyas and Tsvetana Pironkova respectively.

Ekaterina Makarova, Angelique Kerber, Lucie Safarova, Flavia Pennetta and Carla Suarez Navarro are all through to the third round.

Alize Cornet, Karolina Pliskova, Tsvetana Pironkova, Zarina Diyas and Garbine Muguruza were also second-rounder winners on Tuesday.