Lexus Nottingham Open 2025: Former US Open champion Marin Cilic leads charge into quarter-finals; Brits bow out in second round

Cilic – who has also reached finals at Wimbledon and the Australian Open – moved on to the final eight in Nottingham for the first time since 2008 after South African Lloyd Harris was forced to retire in the final set at 2-6, 6-4, 3-1.

The 36-year-old Croatian has been building his game on the grass this summer, having also made an appearance at the Lexus Ilkley Open last week and is continuing to grow in confidence.

“One thing is practice and another is to put that into a match,” Cilic said. “Lloyd played fantastic tennis, served incredibly and put me in a lot of difficult positions.

“Today was a bit trickier than the first round, I didn’t have too many chances on his serve but sometimes you have to stay patient, wait and stay solid.”

Harris had made a brilliant start to the match on centre court – winning 16/18 points on serve in the opening set and the former Surbiton champion looked back to his best.

Cilic grew into the game in the second and had to see off three break points at 3-3 0-40 to stay within touching distance.

However, just a couple of games later Harris caused himself a head injury that forced him into a lengthy medical timeout after losing the second set. When he came back out he was clearly struggling and once he got broken in the decider, he decided to call it a day.

“Unbelievably unlucky, he hit himself with the racket. Really, really poor luck for him today and I hope he gets better soon.

“Every match is a great opportunity to play. I want to keep going the way I’m going and hopefully play some good tennis.”

In the next round he will play either Tomas Barrios Vera or Ilkley champion Tristan Schoolkate.

Emilio Nava will play countryman Colton Smith in the quarter-finals after the world No.121 knocked out British wild card Ryan Peniston at the start of the day.

Peniston had the chance to serve for the opening set but the big-serving American edged a close tie-break before seeing out the match in an hour and 47 minutes.

The British star knocked out fifth seed Daniel Elahi Galan in the opening round and leaves Nottingham having found out earlier today that he’ll have a wild card into Wimbledon qualifying.

Staying with the Brits Jan Choinski also exited in the second round to Jaime Faria 7-5, 6-3 after an impressive campaign in Nottingham.

Choinski won three three-set matches in just two days – picking up wins against Alibek Kachmazov, Paul Jubb and Eliot Spizzirri.

Jones loses out to seventh seed in second round

2024 quarter-finalist Francesca Jones became the third British player to lose out on day four at the Lexus Nottingham Tennis Centre in a tough match against seventh seed Linda Noskova.

Former world No.25 Noskova defeated the British wild card 6-1, 6-3 in an hour and 39 minutes.

“Everybody is happy when they can play as many matches as possible so I’m just trying to find my game and get a good start,” Noskova said. “It was mostly good – I was definitely using my serve a lot and that was definitely what I wanted to do.

“It was my first time playing on this court, it’s very beautiful. I wasn’t expecting the crowd to be on my side, but it was still a great match.”

Jones battled hard against the former junior Roland Garros champion – saving 20 break points in two brutal sets in the heat on centre court but couldn’t trouble the Czech's serve. Noskova hit an impressive nine aces in a dominant second round performance to set up a quarter-final clash with Rebecca Sramkova.

Sramkova picke up the upset of the day out on Court 1, knocking out fourth seed and 2024 Birmingham champion Yulia Putintseva 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

Elsewhere, Dayana Yastremska beat Antonia Ruzic 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 and will play either Leylah Fernandez or Cristina Bucsa in the next round.