Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova in action during her Eastbourne Open round of 32 match against Britain's Harriet Dart at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, Britain.
EASTBOURNE- - Barbora Krejcikova saved two match points on the way to a 6-3 6-7(4) 7-5 victory over Briton Harriet Dart at the Eastbourne Open on Tuesday, securing her first singles win of the grass season a week before beginning her Wimbledon title defence.
Czech Krejcikova, who returned to action last month after a back injury had kept her out of action since November, needed two hours and 40 minutes to secure the win at a breezy Devonshire Park.
Having taken a scrappy opening set, Krejcikova continued to struggle with the wind and was involved in a heated exchange with the umpire after earning a time violation for taking too long on serve, with Dart taking advantage.
The 124th-ranked Dart broke to level the set at 6-6 and sailed through the tiebreaker as Krejcikova's second serve faltered.
Dart looked poised for victory when leading 5-3 in the decider and had two match points at 5-4 but her game disintegrated as Krejcikova dug deep.
A deflated Dart let out a frustrated scream after losing her advantage and crumbled in her final service game as she was broken to love.
"It was a really tough match and I expected that Harriet is going to play well because she's home favourite and she loves to play on grass," said second seed Krejcikova, who suffered a first-round exit at Queen's Club two weeksago.
"So I expected it's going to be tough and to be honest, in that third set when I was down and having those two match points down, I was kind of already in the locker room mentally."
Krejcikova faces another Briton next in Jodie Burrage,who beat Japan's Moyuka Uchijima.
British number one Emma Raducanu looked like following Dart out as she struggled against American Ann Li but the 2021 U.S. Open champion recovered to win 6-7(5) 6-3 6-1.
"It was tough and there were lots of ups and downs but from the middle of second set I managed to find an extra gear," an emotional Raducanu, who faces Australia's Maya Joint next, said.
Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, seeded three, made it through as she beat Britain's Sonay Kartal 6-3 7-6(2).
But 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin was beaten 6-4 6-4 by Kimberly Birrell.
