Carla Suarez Navarro booked her place in the Brisbane International quarter-finals on Tuesday after a battling three-set victory over Sam Stosur.

After dominating the opening set of their second-round match, sixth seed Suarez Navarro appeared on course for the last eight as a match point arrived in the 10th game of the second.

However, she failed to convert it and Stosur fought back to force a tie-break, and eventually level the match.

The home hope was unable to complete the comeback though as Suarez Navarro broke early in the decider, the Spaniard going on to secure a 6-1 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 win.

Suarez Navarro is joined in the quarter-finals by eighth seed Roberta Vinci after she reeled off nine successive games in her 6-1 6-1 triumph over Dominika Cibulkova.

Former finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is also into the latter stages after battling her way past Alize Cornet, the 2014 runner-up putting a second set dip behind her to progress 6-2 1-6 6-4.

Meanwhile in the first round, Ekaterina Makarova made the most of Maria Sharapova's withdrawal with an arm injury to win her opening match of the year.

Makarova wasted six set points in the opener against Margarita Gasparyan – Sharapova's late replacement - before moving ahead , the Russian going on to win 6-4 2-6 6-3.