LONDON (Reuters) -American teenager Coco Gauff’s Wimbledon preparations suffered a blip as she bowed out of the Eastbourne tournament on Wednesday, losing to Latvian Anastasija Sevastova 4-6 7-5 6-2.
Third seed Bianca Andreescu also went out on the Devonshire Park grass but top seed Aryana Sabalenka had no trouble in beating American Alison Riske 6-1 6-4.
The 17-year-old Gauff came back after losing the opening eight games the previous evening against seventh seed Elise Mertens, but this time she succumbed after leading by a set and 5-2. Sevastova, a lucky loser from qualifying, cruised through the deciding set as Gauff’s serve went off the boil at 2-2.
Sevastova will next face Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina who knocked out Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in straight sets.
World number 23 Gauff reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the French Open this month and will head to Wimbledon where she took the tournament by storm in 2019, beating former champion Venus Williams en route to the fourth round.
Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko showed signs of coming back to her best form as she knocked out Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, winner of last week’s WTA event in Birmingham.
Ostapenko, who is playing doubles at Eastbourne with Gauff, won 5-7 6-4 6-3. Qualifier Camila Giorgi reached the third round after beating American Shelby Rogers.
Candian Andreescu, the former U.S. Open champion, was no match for Estonian Anett Kontaveit, losing 6-3 6-3.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Ed Osmond)
