Caroline Garcia too strong for Scot Maia Lumsden

It was a good day for the leading names at the rain-drenched Nature Valley Open in Nottingham.

Glasgow's Maia Lumsden in action against Caroline Garcia. Picture: Nigel French/PA Wire

For a fourth successive day, no play was possible on the grass courts because of rain, with all matches played on indoor hard courts at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.

That did not bother top seeds Caroline Garcia or Donna
Vekic, who lost just seven games between them in dominant second-round victories.

Garcia defeated Scottish wild card Maia Lumsden, pictured, 6-3, 6-1 while 2017 champion Vekic was a 6-1 6-2 winner over lucky loser Chloe Paquet.

Lumsden had recorded her first WTA victory by beating fellow British player Tara Moore on Wednesday but Garcia was a significant step up and the Frenchwoman eased to victory.

The four other seeds in action – Maria Sakkari, Ajla Tomljanovic, Kristina Mladenovic and Tatjana Maria – also won to reach the quarter-finals.

Tomjanovic beat Harriet Dart, which along with Lumsden’s loss, ended British interest in the women’s singles.

In a topsy-turvy opening set, British No 4 four Dart recovered from 2-0 down to lead 5-2, only for Australia’s Tomljanovic to fight back and force a tie-break. Although the British player took that, she then struggled as Tomljanovic sealed a 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2 victory.

Vekic was in fine form in a 6-1, 6-2 success against lucky loser Chloe Paquet.

With the women using the indoor courts on site, the men’s Challenger event is being played at Nottingham Trent University.

British top seed Dan Evans faced 17-year-old compatriot Jack Draper, who was the runner-up in the boys’ singles at Wimbledon last year, in the second round.

Draper made a fine start and led 5-2 but he was unable to take advantage of a set point, and nine games in a row for Evans helped him on the way to a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

Evans, whose winning run is now six matches following his title success in Surbiton last week, will now take on Swede Mikael Ymer in the third round.

At the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Holland, qualifier Elena Rybakina knocked out ninth seed Alison Van Uytvanck, winning 6-3, 6-4. There were also wins for Russian pair Ekaterina Alexandrova and Veronika Kudermetova.

In the men’s draw, Chilean Nicolas Jarry knocked out top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 and, in a Chilean double, seventh seed Cristian Garin defeated Robin Haase 7-5, 7-5. There were also wins for fifth seed David Goffin and Adrian Mannarino, who ousted fourth seed Fernando 
Verdasco.

At the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Dustin Brown pulled off another grass-court upset.

The Jamaican-German, who once defeated Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, serve and volleyed his way to a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 victory over No 1 seed Alexander Zverev.

Second seed Karen Khachanov, like Zverev a quarter-finalist at the French Open, also fell, losing 6-4, 6-2 to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini.

Seventh seed Felix Auger-Aliassime was a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Gilles Simon while Denis Kudla edged a tight three-setter against fifth seed Gael Monfils, winning on a deciding tie-break.