Harriet Dart produced a landmark victory against her British rival Katie Boulter, winning 4-6 6-1 7-6 (10-8) to reach the third round at Wimbledon for the second time in her career.
Dart was in tears at the back of the court when she trailed 6-2 in the deciding tie-break but she clawed her way back to win 4-6 6-1 7-6 (10-8) after two hours and 56 minutes of tension on Court One.
It was a thoroughly merited win for Dart and one of the biggest of her career. The 27-year-old will now meet China’s Wang Xinyu, who upset fifth seed Jessica Pegula, in the last 32.
“Even though I was down in that tie-break I thought ‘give it everything you’ve got, have no regrets’ and I was able to battle through,” said Dart.
“I haven’t played on Court No 1 since I played mixed doubles here so it’s nice to get my first big win in front of the crowd.”
Miyazaki suffers dreaded double bagel
Lily Miyazaki suffered a whitewash defeat to Daria Kasatkina (right)
Wild card Lily Miyazaki won only 19 points as she suffered a rapid straight-sets defeat to world No 12 Daria Kasatkina at the start of a colossal day of British tennis at Wimbledon.
The Tokyo-born player had already more than doubled her prize money for the year after earning £93,000 by breezing past German Tamara Korpatsch to reach the second round of the Championships for the first time.
But Eastbourne champion Kasatkina proved a step too far and cruised to a crushing 6-0 6-0 success in 50 minutes.
World No 148 Miyazaki was made to wait for her latest moment in the spotlight after wet weather on Wednesday contributed in pushing the match back a day.
A landmark victory always looked a big ask for the 28-year-old and she nervously began with a double-fault en route to losing the opening 10 points.
She was quickly staring down the barrel of a swift exit and, despite going 30-0 up on Kasatkina’s serve at 5-0 down, surrendered the opening set to her Russian opponent inside 20 minutes.
Kasatkina underlined her grass-court credentials with last week’s title success in Eastbourne
Kasatkina, a Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 2018, underlined her grass-court credentials with last week’s title success at the Rothesay International at Devonshire Park.
The 27-year-old showed little sign of easing up and ruthlessly continued her march towards round three with a dominant display.
Miyazaki finally earned an opportunity to avoid a double bagel at advantage in game three of the second set but eventually lost it with another double fault as a one-sided contest slipped away.
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