South storms into quarters

The wildcard, 22, from the West London suburbs overcame a first-set thumping to down the 24-year-old Japanese number two, who is ranked 78th in the world - 76 places above South.

South will face Belgian 18-year-old Yanina Wickmayer, who reached her first ever WTA Tour quarter final after a 6-3 6-4 win over number eight seed Michaella Krajicek at Edgbaston.

Two weeks after playing in her first Grand Slam Wickmayer earned a second consecutive win over a seeded player and reached the last eight in her fourth event on the tour proper.

In other matches, third seed Nicole Vaidisova wasted a 4-1 lead in the first, but rallied for a 6-7 (5) 6-2 6-4 victory over Ekaterina Marakova and assumed favourite status among the only three remaining seeds.

The other seeds are the Ukrainian Bondarenko sisters, who both had to come from behind to reach the quarters, and will face each other in the semis if both win again.

Number five seed Alona had to recover from a set and a break down to beat India's Sunitha Rao 3-6 7-5 6-1, while her younger sister Kateryna, the 12th seed, beat Melinda Czink of Hungary 4-6 6-4 7-5.