Continuing her impressive return to tennis, Ashleigh Barty prevailed in a three-set battle against Andrea Hlavackova to sail into the quarter-finals of the WTA International Aegon Open in Nottingham.
The Australian, who returned to action after switching to cricket for almost two years, pulled off a 6-0 4-6 6-4 win over her opponent from Czech Republic to improve to 11-1 since her second inning.
Moving on to the last-eight stage, Barty has been slated to cross the swords with another Czech in top seed Karolina Pliskova, who is bidding to win her first title of the 2016 season.
Home favorite Johanna Konta, the No. 2, crashed out of the tournament following a 6-4 7-5 defeat to China’s Saisai Zheng in the other second-round encounter that lasted exactly two hours.
However, Tara Moore – playing in her maiden WTA main draw event – kept the local challenge afloat, as she inched closer to earning a Wimbledon wildcard following an upset win over eighth-seeded American Christina McHale. The 280th-ranked Moore won 6-2 6-2 in just 66 minutes.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals was lucky loser Tamira Paszek, who led 6-3 3-1 when her opponent Magdalena Rybarikova retired midway through the match due to a knee injury.
