TAIPEI, Chinese Taipei - Kimiko Date-Krumm recovered from a break down in the final set to defeat Alexandra Stevenson in the first round of the OEC Taipei WTA Ladies Open on Monday.

The season may be winding down, but No.6 seed Date-Krumm and Stevenson were certainly not going through the motions at the Taipei Arena.

In a classic battle of serve against return, both players enjoyed periods of dominance, but after nearly two and a half hours on court, a final set tie-break was required to separate them. Eventually it was Date-Krumm who snuck through, winning 64 36 76(5).

Despite coming out on the wrong end of the result, Stevenson battled gamely against a player ranked over 300 places higher than her in the rankings. Her serve proved particularly troublesome for Date-Krumm, who saw 17 aces fly past her in three sets.

"She has a lot of power and a big serve so it was a very tough match," Date-Krumm said. "When her first serve went in, I couldn't do anything, so the whole time I was just hoping inside that she would miss!

"She also hit a few double faults and this made it also difficult to get any rhythm on her serve. I was down 0-2 in the third set and it was very tough and even when I got ahead she came back again to make the tie-break."

Meeting Date-Krumm in the second round will be Zhang Ling after she defeated local wildcard Juan Ting-Fei, 61 63. Also advancing on Day 1 were Kurumi Nara and Tamarine Tanasugarn.

Nara had few problems overcoming Lee Ya-Hsuan, while former World No.19 Tanasugarn caused the tournament's first upset, defeating No.8 seed Greta Arn, 61 46 75.

"It was a tough first round. In the first set I was playing good but in the second she really raised her game," Tanasugarn said. "The second set was really close and there was just one break and then the final set was even until 6-5.

"I think we both played really great tennis and I'm just lucky it was me that won in the end."