British wildcard Heather Watson has upset defending champion Dominika Cibulkova at Eastbourne.
The No.126-ranked Watson fired eight aces in a 7-5 6-4 second round victory.
It marked the second top 10 win of the 25-year-old’s career, and first in over two years.
The loss means Cibulkova, the world No.9, will enter Wimbledon on a four-match losing streak. Three of those losses have been against opponents ranked outside the top 100.
“Obviously Dominika is an amazing player, and she won this tournament last year,” Watson told the WTA after the match. “She’s just a hard worker and a fighter, so I knew it was never going to be easy – and it definitely wasn’t. But I thought I played really well today. I really got the serve going.”
Once ranked as high as No.38, the result also marked the first time in over 12 months that Watson has scored back-to-back wins against top 100 opponents (following a three-set win over world No.34 Lesia Tsurenko in the first round earlier this week).
Watson next plays Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist last year, who defeated Belgian Elise Mertens 3-6 6-4 6-1 in the second round.
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