Britain’s Emma Raducanu continued her Wimbledon preparations by cruising into the quarter-finals of the Nottingham Open with a straight-set win over Ukraine’s Daria Snigur.
Raducanu – playing only her second match since April after deciding to skip the French Open to focus on her fitness – made light work of the world number 127 to win 6-2 6-2.
She will face compatriot Fran Jones or American Ashlyn Krueger in the last eight.
In the men’s Challenger event, Cameron Norrie suffered a shock 1-6 6-4 6-4 loss to world number 773 Jack Pinnington Jones.
Raducanu, 21, made a shaky start to the second-round match as her 22-year-old opponent broke her serve in the opening game.
Both players then held serve before former US Open champion Raducanu reeled off six games in a row – including a double break – to win the first set.
After ceding the first game, Raducanu’s serve was particularly impressive. She sent down 11 aces thanks to a new-look action she has adopted since reuniting with childhood coach Nick Cavaday.
On her serve, Raducanu said: “I’ve been working on every part of my game but the serve is very important.
“I don’t look at the speed gun but when I raise my game it’s nice to get a couple of free points.
“At the start of the year, I didn’t manage to get that. When playing the top opponents like Iga [Swiatek] or Aryna [Sabalenka] then you need a first serve.”
Snigur also found it difficult to cope with the power Raducanu produced from her groundstrokes, most notably her forehand.
But the world number 209 put her frustration aside to make it back-to-back wins for the third time this year as she builds up to Wimbledon, which starts on 1 July.
Norrie shocked by fellow Brit
Norrie will be replaced by Jack Draper as the British number one on Monday after his surprise loss to Pinnington Jones.
The 28-year-old has failed to reach a final in any tournament in 2024 and has dropped to 39 in the world rankings.
Pinnington Jones plays on the ITF Tour – the second-tier of professional men’s tennis – recorded his first win over a top-100 opponent with his comeback victory over Norrie.
The 21-year-old will now rise at least 137 places in the world rankings.
“It was a tough match, I had a lot of opportunities in the second set as well a lot of break points in the third,” Norrie said.
“But I’m happy for him and he deserved the win today and hopefully he can go further.
“I was very disappointed with the match, but I am happy that Jack is through and the [American university] Texas Christian Union boys are doing well.”
Pinnington Jones, who has a career-high rank of 489, will take on Italian Mattia Bellucci in his first Challenger quarter-final on Friday.
Draper is currently competing in the grass-court event at Stuttgart and will play American Frances Tiafoe in the quarter-finals on Friday.