Britain’s Heather Watson has sent out a message that she is in form on grass ahead of Wimbledon. The Briton shocked 4th seed and defending champion Dominika Cibulkova 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the Aegon International.
Watson broke Cibulkova five times, and managed to limit the 4th seed to just three breaks. The wildcard served eight aces and hit just one double-fault in the match that lasted nearly an hour and forty-five minutes.
The win came after a difficult first round win over Lesia Tsurenko. Watson had won that match 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in just short of three hours.
The pair of wins are very welcome for Watson, who had lost in the first round in her other two WTA warm-up events in Birmingham and Nottingham to Elina Svitolina and Alison Riske.
Her reward for shocking the 4th seed could yield a match with another seeded player. 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova takes on Elise Mertens in their second round match.
The loss for Cibulkova leaves last year’s winner out at the second round stage. There will now be questions over her form going into Wimbledon next week. Cibulkova was seeded 19th last year, and made the quarter-finals.
Cibulkova’s loss potentially opens up the Eastbourne draw for the likes of Garbine Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska. Cibulkova had beaten Radwanska in the fourth round of Wimbledon last year in what at the time was considered a shock.
