Heather Watson: British number two wins first match in four months in Nuremberg Cup

Heather Watson ended her four-month WTA Tour singles losing streak with victory over Kateryna Bondarenko to reach the second round of the Nuremberg Cup.

The 26-year-old overturned a deficit in the third-set tie-break to beat her Ukrainian opponent 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-3) and end a winless run of eight matches.

Briton Watson's last victory came in the quarter-finals of the Hobart International in January.

She will play Hungarian qualifier Fanny Stollar in the second round in Germany.

With a large percentage of her ranking points to defend over the grass-court season, Watson is effectively playing to keep her place in the world's top 100 and taking the opener against Bondarenko suggested an upturn in fortunes.

However, the world number 73 dropped the second set and struggled to hold serve during the decider, but so did Bondarenko who denied Watson a chance of victory on multiple occasions during the closing stages of the third.

Watson dug deep, however, as she overturned a 2-1 deficit in the tie-break to take it 7-3, completing the triumph in two hours and 38 minutes.