Boulter enjoys career-best win over Pliskova at Eastbourne

British number four Katie Boulter roared back from almost suffering a first-set bagel to dump out last year's Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova in the second round of the Rothesay International Eastbourne.

The 25-year-old trailed 5-0 inside half an hour to the world number seven but after she got on the board kept with the Czech before she got the Centre Court crowd off their feet on a number of occasions during a dramatic second and third set.

Boulter was able to take five of her 19 break-point opportunities to secure a 1-6 6-4 6-4 win and continue her great form after she claimed a previous career-best scalp over Alison Riske in Birmingham last week.

A gutsy victory over Tereza Martincova on Sunday meant the home favourite walked out for her ninth match on grass this summer and while she faced a formidable opponent, Pliskova had admitted to not feeling 100 per cent back to her best ahead of the match.

The concerns of the two-time grand-slam finalist seemed unfounded after she broke Boulter twice early on but the Brit continued to create break points and earned warm applause after avoiding a whitewash.

It boosted Boulter who continued to make chances on Pliskova's serve and eventually started to take them in the second set to level up the scores.

Four consecutive double-faults by the former world number one aided Boulter's cause in the decider but she was immediately broken back to leave the set finely poised.

Having let a 4-2 lead slip, Boulter remained focused and a fine return gave her the chance to serve out the victory. A first match point was saved but after a superb cross-court winner set up a second, this one was not wasted to give Boulter the best result of her career.

"That gave me goosebumps, so thank you