Watson and Loffhagen progress on busy British day in Nottingham

By Oli Dickson Jefford, Sportsbeat

Heather Watson and George Loffhagen reached the quarter-finals of the LTA’s Rothesay Open Nottingham on a busy day of British action at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.

Watson faced a tough second round match against Tatjana Maria, her best friend on tour and former doubles partner who reached the semi-final at Wimbledon last year.

At 66th in the world, Maria is 129 spots above the Brit in the world rankings though the gap did not show as Watson produced a stylish performance to prevail 6-4 6-4 on Centre Court.

After coming through qualifying Watson is on a four-match winning streak and is yet to drop a set in Nottingham, with 2021 Wimbledon quarter-finalist Viktorija Golubic - who defeated fourth seed Donna Vekic - up next in the last eight.

Watson also triumphed in the women’s doubles alongside Harriet Dart, the wildcard pairing defeating third seeds Hao-Ching and Latisha Chan 6-3 6-4.

Meanwhile, Loffhagen picked up the best win of his career in the opening round against Otto Virtanen, and backed that up with a hard-fought victory over Chinese qualifier Juncheng Shang.

Wildcard Loffhagen - ranked 414th in the world - battled past the world No.176 6-4 5-7 6-3 to set-up a quarter-final encounter against fifth seed Dominik Koepfer.

Koepfer had in fact beaten Arthur Fery in the second round on Wednesday, the Brit’s campaign ending following a 6-4 6-2 defeat to the German.

Liam Broady’s campaign in the men’s singles also came to an end with the 29-year-old being beaten 7-6(4) 6-4 by Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro.

However it was a successful afternoon for him in doubles action, as he and Jonny O’Mara defeated Aisam-ul-Hq Qureshi and N. Sriram Balaji 6-4 6-4 to progress.

Wildcards Jacob Fearnley and Johannus Monday produced a huge shock as they beat top seeds Andre Goransson and Ben McLachlan 6-4 7-6(3) to reach the last eight.

Also progressing were Toby Samuel and Connor Thomson, who defeated Purav Raja and Divij Sharan 6-3 6-2.

They will now face Julian Cash and Luke Johnson in the last eight, following their 7-6(2) 7-6(2) victory versus Mattia Bellucci and Bu Yunchaokete.

Britain’s top women’s doubles pair Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls won an all-British battle as they beat wildcards Jodie Burrage and Emily Appleton 6-4 6-4.

Another pair of wildcards, Freya Christie and Ali Collins, saw their women’s doubles campaign come to a close with a 4-6 6-4 [10-4] loss to Ulrikke Eikeri and Ingrid Neel.

For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website