Harriet Dart to emerge from Eastbourne Open as Arthur Fery among six Britons to make history at Wimbledon tuning event | Tennis News

Harriet Dart crashed out of the first round of the Eastbourne Open on Tuesday after losing 4-6 6-2 7-5 to Zeynep Sönmez.

Dart, who won the Women’s Doubles event at the Nottingham Open alongside Maia Lumsden last week, started brightly, breaking Sönmez three times in the opening set as she fired six aces.

Despite that, Sönmez made a sensational comeback, saving two break points to go 2-0 up in the second set, before breaking Dart twice, going up 5-2 before giving up the match.

The final set was a battle of endurance. The two traded seven breaks before Dart found himself serving at 5-3.

But Sönmez was not ready to give up, with the world No 54 coming back to win the next three games, to draw level with world No 45 Sara Bejlek.

Fellow Brit Alicia Dudeney, who has also been given a wild card into the event, was also knocked out in quick succession by world number 48 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, amid a flurry of upsets, with fourth seed Barbora Krejcikova losing 6-3 7-6 to world number 73 Kimberly Birrell.

Meanwhile, No 1 seed Jasmine Paolini was left reeling after losing 4-6 3-6 to world No 112 Tatjana Maria.

Fery plans a second round tie with Cerundolo

Britain’s Arthur Ferry is through to the second round of the Eastbourne Open following a rollercoaster performance that saw him beat Argentina’s Andres Burruchaga 6-2 4-7 7-5.

A win will mean that for the first time in the tournament’s history, six British men have reached the round of 16, including Jan Choinski, Jack Draper, Jack Pinington Jones, Giles Hussey and Tobey Samuel.

Fery won the first set, taking a 3-0 lead before going ahead 6-2. Things turned around in the second set, when Burruchaga matched him for the match, before breaking Fery to go 4-3. The Brit saved three points as he tried to break back, but Burruchaga would eventually see out the set.

Riding high, Burruchaga took a 5-3 lead in the final set, but a resilient Fery fought back to level at 5-5 before winning the last two games.

“It was a roller coaster,” Fery, who will play Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the next round, told the ATP Tour after the match.

“I started really well, I got out of the blocks and then I struggled a lot in the second set and started the third. He was playing a lot better. Then I tried to go deep and try to get the break back, and then I was able to get through the line.”

Osaka improves as Svitolina stumbles at Bad Homburg Open

Top seed Naomi Osaka booked her place in the quarter-finals of the Bad Homburg Open, with a 6-3 6-3 win over Elise Mertens.

Osaka needed just one hour and seven minutes to win, breaking Mertens in her first time to do so, before dominating her service game to see out the first set.

Things continued in the same vein from there, Osaka leading 4-2 in the second set, before wrapping up the match by breaking Mertens in the final game.

She will play either Ekaterina Alexandrova or Mirra Andreeva in the next round.

World No. 8 Elina Svitolina was taken to three sets by Liudmila Samsononova, who, after losing the first set, left the Ukrainian reeling from a 5-3 lead before breaking her opponent to level the match at 1-1.

However, Svitolina’s big match experience shone through in the final exchange, with the 31-year-old breaking her opponent in three of the last five games to see out the match 6-3 3-6 2-6.

Tsitsipas’ difficult year continues in Mallorca

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost 7-6 7-4 6-3 in the round of 32 against Peruvian Ignacio Buse and during the match, he made an awkward stop to complain to the chair umpire about the condition of the tennis balls being used.

Continuing the world No 3’s poor previous season, Tsitsipas dropped to 88th in the ATP Tour rankings.

Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, live on Sky Sports or stream NOW with the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sports this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.