Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage both advanced to the second round of the Eastbourne International on Monday, but Ryan Peniston and George Loffhagen bowed out.
Fresh from her runs to the quarter-finals in Nottingham and Birmingham, Dart off a praiseworthy comeback against world number 37 Zhang Shuai to win 7-5 6-7[7] 6-1.
Dart got off to a nightmare start as she fell 3-0 down in the opening set, but the Briton fought back admirably with three breaks to edge ahead on her third set point.
However, Dart was broken twice while serving for the match in the second set and came up short in the tie-breaker, before she was broken for the fifth time at the start of the third.
Blustery conditions did not help either player, but Dart found a ruthless streak when it mattered most, embarking on a brilliant six-game winning streak and getting over the line on her fifth match point as Shuai sent a forehand long.
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Either Birmingham Classic winner Jelena Ostapenko or Petra Kvitova will face Dart in the last 16, and lucky loser Burrage joined her compatriot in the second round in similar circumstances, overcoming a tricky start to sink fellow qualifier Lauren Davis 4-6 6-4 6-3 in just over two hours.
At 5-3 down in the opener, Burrage broke Davis while the American was serving for the set before subsequently being broken to love herself, winning just 30% of points behind her second serve.
Burrage and Davis exchanged breaks in the first four games of the second set before the latter lost her serve again in the seventh, allowing the Briton to level the contest with a smooth hold to love.
After being broken in the first game of the second set, lightning struck twice for Davis in the decider, and she could not recover from that early setback as Burrage set up a second-round clash with Bernarda Pera or Coco Gauff.
Later in the day, Peniston and ATP Tour debutant Loffhagen sought to replicate their compatriots' success, and the latter was seemingly on course to do so against France's Luca van Assche.
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However, the world number 367 squandered one match point and went down 6-2 6-7[5] 6-7[4] to the French qualifier, being made to pay for 11 double faults and countless shanked forehands.
After Van Assche saved a match point in the second set, the Frenchman recovered from a 3-1 deficit in the decider before being broken while serving for the match in a topsy-turvy affair, but he came up with the goods in the tie-breaker again to deny Loffhagen a memorable debut.
The Brit's compatriot Peniston did not fare much better either, as he was defeated 3-6 2-6 by Switzerland's Marc-Andrea Huesler in one hour and 18 minutes.
The world number 267 was aiming to build on his shock Queen's win over Ugo Humbert but failed to take his two chances to break Huesler, who only needed to convert three of his 10 chances to progress comfortably.
Ben Knapton
