Wednesday 6 August 2014 22:37, UK
Heather Watson progressed to the third round of the Rogers Cup after battling to a 6-2 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-5) win over 10th seed Dominika Cibulkova in Montreal.
The British No 1 bridged a 45-place gap in the WTA rankings to topple the Slovakian, who reached the final of the Australian Open earlier this year.
Watson flew out of the blocks in the opening set, with the world No 12 being broken on two occasions and failing to make any inroads on the Watson serve.
Cibulkova was a lot more competitive in the second and levelled the match in a tie-break after both players dropped serve twice.
There was hardly anything to separate them again in the decider, with two more service breaks each leading to another tie-break, which saw Watson edge out her opponent to complete the upset.
Watson’s win set up a last-16 meeting with former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka, who defeated Alize Cornet 6-4 2-6 6-4.
Elsewhere in the second round in Montreal, French Open champion Maria Sharapova was forced to come from behind to defeat Garbine Muguruza 4-6 6-3 6-1.
Sharapova had also fought back from a set down when the two met in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and Spanish youngster Muguruza once again fell short of completing the upset.
There were no such problems for former champion Caroline Wozniacki cruised through with a 6-1 6-2 victory over Klara Koukalova.
Sixth seed Angelique Kerber also made smooth progress as she defeated Caroline Garcia 6-4 6-1. Carla Suarez Navarro, the 14th seed, was forced to work harder for her 6-1 3-6 6-3 win against Karolina Pliskova.
