Baltacha wins her battle at Eastbourne

SCOTLAND'S Elena Baltacha reached the quarter-finals of the AEGON International in Eastbourne with a three-set win over China's Zheng Jie.

The British No1 recovered from a wobble in the second set to win 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 against the world No24 and will next meet French Open runner-up Sam Stosur after the Australian edged out Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Heather Watson's Eastbourne run came to an end, though, as Victoria Azarenka powered past the youngster 6-1, 6-1.

Kim Clijsters, a former champion at Eastbourne, looks the player to beat in the women's draw. The Belgian trounced Lucie Safarova 6-1, 6-0.

In the men's event, James Ward stole the show with his second win over a top-100 player in as many days to reach his first ATP World Tour quarter-final as Ward defeated world No72 Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).

The British No5 next faces seventh seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, who defeated Yen-hsun Lu 6-7 (1/7), 6-1, 6-2.