Great Britain's Heather Watson has advanced to the quarter-finals of the Nottingham Open courtesy of an impressive two-set win over Tatjana Maria in Wednesday's second-round match.
The world number 195 - who came through qualifying to earn a place in the main draw - stunned the Wimbledon semi-finalist in a 6-4 6-4 win, taking one hour and 24 minutes to complete the job.
Maria entered the contest sitting 129 spots higher than Watson in the WTA rankings, and the opening exchanges followed the script as the German broke early for a 2-0 lead.
However, Watson broke back straight away, and Maria also lost her serve in the seventh game en route to defeat in the first set, where she failed to fire any aces compared to Watson's three.
The pair once again traded breaks early on in the second set before Watson missed three chances to break in the seventh game, but Maria lost her serve again in the ninth before the former British number one made it through on her third match point.
Watson can now look forward to a showdown with Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic for a place in the semi-finals, where she could potentially meet Harriet Dart or Katie Boulter, who are in second-round action tomorrow against Anhelina Kalinina and Daria Snigur respectively.
However, there was disappointment for GB's men in the Nottingham Challenger event, as Liam Broady and Arthur Fery lost their second-round affairs to Sho Shimabukuro and Dominik Koepfer respectively.
