Brave Katie tamed by Pet after battle

KATIE Boulter pushed two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova all the way but saw her Rothesay International Eastbourne run end after a hard-fought 5-7 6-0 7-5 loss.

The world number 127 had knocked out Karolina Pliskova in the previous round to continue her impressive summer on grass and claimed the opener on Centre Court to move within one set of the quarter-finals.

But Kvitova showed her class during the second and held her nerve in the decider at Devonshire Park to dump out Boulter, who will now turn her attention to Wimbledon.

The British number four started slowly and a Katie Boulter double-fault in her first service game gave the Czech an early break.

The 32-year-old looked on course to take the opening set before the Briton stormed back in fine fashion to reel off five consecutive games to clinch it 7-5. Kvitova, a former world number two, upped her level in the next set and even a second brief stoppage for a medical emergency in the crowd could not halt her momentum as she served out a bagel to Boulter.

Admirably the home favourite regrouped but was decisively broken when she attempted to force a tie-break to lose in two hours and 23 minutes.

Cameron Norrie eased past Brandon Nakashima 6-4 6-2 for his first win on grass this summer. The British number one had suffered a shock early exit at Queen’s Club last week but produced an accomplished display against his American opponent, breaking serve three times.

“I love coming here so I’m glad I could enjoy it and play great,” said world number 12 Norrie, who will be seeded ninth at Wimbledon.

“It would have been nice to go deeper at Queen’s but I’m now looking to get some more matches and time on the grass before Wimbledon here.”

There will be no all-british meeting in the quarter-finals, though, after Birmingham’s Dan Evans was knocked out by Maxime Cressy 7-6 6-4.