Johanna Larsson books place in Nuremberg Cup quarter-finals

Johanna Larsson booked her place in the quarter-finals of the Nuremberg Cup with a 6-3 6-0 win over American Christina McHale.

The Swede will next take on Kristyna Pliskova, the Czech world number 70, who had defeated Julia Goerges in round one.

American Sloane Stephens, though, will have to finish her first round match against Yulia Putintseva on Wednesday following a suspension for bad light.

The top seed, ranked 10 in the world, took the first set 7-5, but lost the second 4-6. The decider was locked at 3-3 before play was eventually halted.

Elsewhere, seventh seed Alison Van Uytvanck is out after fellow Belgain Kirsten Flipkens progressed 7-6 (7/5) 2-6 7-6 (7/2), while Britain’s Heather Watson saw off Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7/3).

At the Internationaux de Strasbourg, number four seed Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania beat Russian Elena Rybakina 6-3 7-6 (7/2) to move into the quarter-finals.

Fifth seed Dominika Cibulkova also progressed after the Slovak beat Reka-Luca Jani of Hungary 6-1 6-4.

However, American seventh seed Danielle Collins and sixth seed Timea Babos of Hungary are both out following respective defeats by China’s Qiang Wang and Kazakhstan player Zarina Diyas.