OEIRAS, Portugal (AFP) ― Two-time grand slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was forced to battle to a marathon 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-2 first round win at the ATP/WTA Portugal Open on Monday.

The Russian wild card, who won the 2004 French Open and the U.S. Open three years later, had to dig deep to see off American sixth seed Varvara Lepchenko.

Kuznetsova, now ranked 45th in the world, is playing the event proper for the first time in her career but she did lose a qualifying match in her only previous visit in 2002.

The 27-year-old was challenged by the standard windy conditions which are a part of this rebranded clay event ― formerly the Estoril Open ― and also had to deal with an unseasonable chill gripping the Iberian peninsula.

Kuznetsova won in just over two and a half hours, firing six aces and breaking Lepchenko six times.

She lost her own serve five times on the way to the struggling success.

“It was a very difficult match against Varvara. I had a lot of ups and downs, as she did,” said the winner.

“The conditions out there were very tough and it wasn’t easy to play. I tried to keep going, keep pushing, and in the end it went my way, so I was happy with that.”

Spanish fourth seed Carla Suarez Navarro dispatched Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-3, 6-0 while Russian seventh seed Elena Vesnina advanced comfortably at the Estadio Nacional over local Maria Joao Koehler 6-4, 6-1.

The 2009 champion Yanina Wickmayer passed the first hurdle as she beat Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-1, 7-5. Japan’s Ayumi Morita beat British debutant Laura Robson 6-2, 7-5, leaving the teenager winless on the WTA since early April.

France’s Marion Bartoli heads the WTA field in the pre-French Open event, ahead of Slovak Dominika Cibulkova.