Battling Broady shows her resilience but Watson and Williams tumble to defeats

The world No 90 showed her battling spirit to see off her higher-ranked opponent Danka Kovinic 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 and ensure she remains in the top 100.

Broady reached the quarter-final of this event last year but looked up against it early on against the world No 70 as she was broken twice to trail 5-2.

But she found her groove and rattled off four successive games to send the set to a tie-break, where she again wiped out a deficit, winning five successive points to claim it 7-5.

The second set followed a similar patter as an early break for Kovinic saw her take a 3-0 lead but Broady’s response was even better as she won the next six games.

British No 2 Heather Watson suffered defeat to Kristina Mladenovic in the Hopman Cup.

There are no ranking points on offer at the mixed-team international tournament in Perth, where Watson is playing with Dan Evans, but she fell to her second loss of the year 6-4 5-7 6-3.

Top seed Serena Williams was knocked out of the ASB Classic in Auckland in the second round by fellow American Madison Brengle.

World No 2 Williams was beaten 6-4 6-7 (7/3) 6-4 by the 26-year-ol d, who is 70 places below her in the rankings.