Victory far from a breeze but Olympic champion Adams guarantees a medal

Adams admits the near-constant 40mph winds in the Azerbaijani capital have played havoc with her hairstyle, but Petrova, too, was no pushover as she took the first round on two of the three judges’ scorecards.

Victory gave Adams a guaranteed medal for Great Britain and the 32-year-old will box for a place in the final when she faces Turk Elif Coskun.

Adams said: “I’ve actually found a way to get away from the wind – I wear a hat now. I got my hair done last year and I quite like it.”

Petrova, who handed Adams her last defeat in the European Championships in Bucharest, was busy enough to win the second, too, on one card, but Adams was dispatching the sharper work by the halfway stage.

Two long-range rights at the end of the third cemented Adams’s dominance and a good fourth saw her through what is likely to prove to have been her toughest assignment in Baku.

Adams added: “It’s shame it wasn’t a final but I’ve still got to treat every opponent as if it’s a final. I’m the Olympic champion and the Commonwealth Games champion and now I’ve got a European Games medal. Every opponent wants to come and beat Nicola Adams so I have to make sure I bring my A-game.”