The No 1 seed at the Nottingham Open, Maria Sakkari, survived a huge scare on a rain-delayed day to advance to the quarter-finals. She beat Canada's Rebeca Marino to set up a last-eight clash with Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia.
It was a nightmare first set for the Greek star who held serve just once. A combination of loose errors and some inspired play from her Canadian opponent saw her loose her first service game to go 2-0 down.
Things got progressively worse for the world No 5 who sent a backhand into the net to go 5-1 down before Marino served it out to take the opening set 6-1.
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A comfortable hold at the start of the second set steadied Sakkari who broke serve at 3-2. The Greek player then went on to open up a 5-3 lead before the match was suspended for several hours due to rain.
Upon its resumption, Sakkari served out the second set to level the match. The first few games of the third set began evenly but a volley into the net at 1-1 handed Sakkari the break for a 2-1 lead.
But the Greek player squandered her momentum with a backhand which sailed wide to hand the break back to Marino. The Canadian held soon after but a careless game at 3-3 restored Sakkari's lead.
She then broke serve again at 5-3 to seal the match. Speaking afterwards, she said: "It was an extremely difficult match today - very different to all the other matches. It was tiring for all of us today.
"It was good to have some time to disconnect and that rain delay worked well for me. I hope the weather can stay dry because it's a wonderful tournament when the sun is shining."
