Dan Evans beats Radu Albot to set up second-round tie with Andy Murray's Wimbledon doubles partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert, while Cameron Norrie will next face Kyle Edmund in all-British clash
Tuesday 25 June 2019 18:20, UK
Johanna Konta continued her Wimbledon preparations by seeing off Maria Sakkari in the second round of the Nature Valley International at Eastbourne.
French Open semi-finalist Konta needed 97 minutes to triumph in front of her home crowd, running out a 6-4 7-6 (7-3) winner.
Next up for the world No 19 on the south coast is a third-round clash with Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.
A potential quarter-final meeting with fifth seed Elina Svitolina remains on the cards while the likes of Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep are also still in the running.
Meanwhile, Dan Evans made a winning start to his campaign in Eastbourne.
The British No 3 made it 11 wins on grass so far this season by beating higher-ranked Moldovan Radu Albot 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 and he will play Pierre-Hugues Herbert in round two after the Frenchman beat Denis Kudla 5-7 7-6 (10-8) 6-4.
It was revenge for Evans after he narrowly missed out on winning a first ATP Tour title in Delray Beach in February, losing to Albot in the final after holding three match points.
Britain's Cameron Norrie will face countryman Kyle Edmund for the first time after an impressive 6-3 7-6 (7-4) victory over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the opening round.
The match was suspended overnight with Norrie 3-0 up in the opening set. He went on to take that, but the second was much tighter and the British No 2 had to save a set point at 5-6 before coming through the tie-break.
There was disappointment for Jay Clarke, who won the first set against Juan Ignacio Londero but eventually went down 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-3.
