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Australian Maddison Inglis has won through to the round of 16 at the WTA 250 event in Palermo with a hard-fought win over Giulia Gatto-Monticone.

Maddison Inglis has progressed to the round of 16 at the WTA 250 event in Palermo with a hard-fought first-up win over Giulia Gatto-Monticone.

Australian Inglis broke the serve of her Italian opponent three times in both sets to close out a 6-2 6-3 victory in one hour 43 minutes.

The 142nd-ranked Inglis converted on six of her 13 break-point opportunities and sealed the result on her second match point.

It wasn't all one-way traffic, however, as world No.191 Gatto-Monticone had 14 break point chances of her own only for Inglis to save 11 of them.

West Australian Inglis will face top seed Danielle Collins or unfancied German Katherina Gerlach for a place in the quarter-finals.

Seventh-seeded Astra Sharma and fellow Aussie Lizette Cabrera will play their opening round matches on Wednesday, against Italy's Lucrezia Sefanini and Ukrainian Katarina Zavatska respectively.

Others to join Inglis in advancing to the last 16 included 2019 champion Jil Teichmann of Switzerland, sixth-seeded Oceane Dodin of France and Chinese qualifier Zheng Qinwen.

The third-seeded Teichmann defeated Marina Bassols Ribera 3-6 6-4 6-1, Dodin overwhelmed Alexandra Dulgheru 6-3 6-2 while Zheng upset second-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia by the same score.