Konta survives brief scare to see off Sakkari

Johanna Konta continued her Wimbledon preparations by seeing off Maria Sakkari in the second round of the Nature Valley International at Eastbourne.

French Open semi-finalist Konta needed 97 minutes to triumph in front of her home crowd, running out a 6-4 7-6 (3) winner.

The 28-year-old broke Sakkari’s serve to take a 3-2 lead in the opening set before an awkward fall in the second could have threatened her progress.

Sakkari took advantage, the Greek breaking to go within a game of levelling the match. But Konta regained control and took the second set to a tie-break, which she would then go on to win.

Next up for the world number 19 on the south coast is a third-round clash with Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.

A potential quarter-final meeting with fifth seed Elina Svitolina remains on the cards while the likes of Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep are also still in the running.

Dan Evans made a winning start to his campaign in Eastbourne.

The British number three made it 11 wins on grass so far this season by beating higher-ranked Moldovan Radu Albot 7-6 (2) 6-2 and he will play either Pierre-Hugues Herbert or Denis Kudla in round two.

It was revenge for Evans after he narrowly missed out on winning a first ATP Tour title in Delray Beach in February, losing to Albot in the final after holding three match points.

Cameron Norrie will face countryman Kyle Edmund for the first time after an impressive 6-3 7-6 (4) victory over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the opening round.

The match was suspended overnight with Norrie 3-0 up in the opening set. He went on to take that but the second was much tighter and the British number two had to save a set point at 5-6 before coming through the tie-break.

There was disappointment for Jay Clarke, who won the first set against Juan Ignacio Londero but eventually went down 6-7 (5) 6-1 6-3.