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Robson moves into main draw with convincing win

Laura Robson won on Monday in Eastbourne © PA Photos

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Laura Robson claimed a confidence-boosting win against Bojana Jovanovski at the AEGON International on Monday to continue her preparations for Wimbledon.

The 18-year-old, who avoided a meeting with Elena Baltacha in Eastbourne after her compatriot was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury, defeated world No. 103 Jovanovski 6-2 6-3 in just over 71 minutes to move seamlessly into the main draw for the tournament at Devonshire Park.

Encouragingly, Robson engineered a comfortable victory thanks to a strong serving performance - she did not give up a single break point during the course of the contest as she won 22 of 28 points on her first serve to progress with some ease.

The news was not so good for British No. 1 Anne Keothavong, who took to the court after Robson to kick off the main draw but was beaten comfortably by eighth seed Daniela Hantuchova.

Keothavong received a wildcard entry intot he event but did not cause an upset, falling to the Slovakian in straight sets, 6-2 6-3.

In the delayed final of the AEGON Classic in Birmingham, Melanie Oudin defeated Jelena Jankovic 6-4 6-2 to claim the title.

Jankovic, the world No. 22, entered the event a full 186 places above Oudin in the rankings - although the American had won the only previous meeting between the pair. And it was that latter statistic that proved to be the more predictive, as Oudin out-played her more illustrious opponent to clinch the title.

It was a day of good news for Oudin, who always discovered she had been given a wildcard for Wimbledon.

Elsewhere, at the Unicef Open there was an early surprise as French Open finalist Sara Errani was dumped out of the tournament, losing to Kateryna Bondarenko in three sets, 5-7 6-3 6-4. The second seed was put off her natural game as Bondarenko relentlessly attacked her serve, eventually succumbing in just under two hours.

She was quickly followed by top seed Sam Stosur - who will need to rediscover her form quickly ahead of the third grand slam of the year, as she was dumped out unceremoniously by qualifier Kirsten Flipkens, 7-6(7) 6-3.

Third seed Dominica Cibulkova and eighth seed Nadia Petrova had no such problems progressing, however, as did Shahar Peer - while Monica Niculescu also moved on after defeating Barbara Zahlavova-Strycov in straight sets.

Francesca Schiavone survived a match point to come back and beat fifth seed Maria Kirilenko 6-4 3-6 7-5, while sixth seed Roberta Vinci dispatched Eleni Daniilidou 6-3 7-5

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