France's Aravane Rezai made a miracle recovery to earn the first of the semi-final places at the Bali Tournament of Champions on Thursday.

Her 6-3 7-5 defeat of Hungarian Melinda Czink in 89 minutes gave Rezai a perfect 2-0 record in her group after an opening-day win over Sabine Lisicki of Germany.

Rezai, ranked 44th in the world, is enjoying a breakthrough season after winning her first career title in Strasbourg before the start of Roland Garros.

"It was pretty tough, a very difficult set," said the winner. "At 5-1 down, I thought I had nothing to lose and it would be better to fight.

"She got nervous because she saw that I was present on the court. I took my chances for the win."

Israeli Shahar Peer made her debut here with a 6-1 7-6 (7-4) victory over Magdalena Rybarikova to knock the Slovak out of weekend contention at the 12-woman event.

"I"m glad I found a way to win... in two sets," said Peer. "It could have easily gone to a third. I played very smart today and did the right thing.

"I served and returned pretty well."

Peer next faces top seed Marion Bartoli with the winner joining Rezai in the last four.

The Israeli came to Indonesia under a political cloud after a struggle to get a visa.

But efforts to avoid a repeat of February, when she was excluded from Dubai, proved successful with officials in the world's most populous Muslim nation eventually allowing her entry.

The field at the $US600,000 ($A658,000) tournament comprises the 10 highest-ranking players who have won a WTA International title this year but who did not compete in the recent season-ending WTA Championship in Qatar.

Two wildcards are also included.

Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez put paid to Agnes Szavay with a 4-6 6-4 6-0 win, leaving the Hungarian 0-2.

But 39-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm grabbed a lifeline thanks to a straight-sets 6-4 6-3 win against Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues, a victory that keeps Asia's only entrant in with a chance of making the weekend.

Date Krumm piled on the pressure with 15 break points, converging on six of them to improve to a 1-1 record after two matches.