Birmingham Classic results: British number one Katie Boulter loses to Zhu Lin in first round

British number one Katie Boulter suffered a first-round defeat at the Birmingham Classic, two days after winning her first WTA Tour title.

Fellow Britons Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage meet in their first-round match later on Tuesday.

Burrage can replace Boulter as British number one but would need to reach the final in Birmingham to overtake her.

Birmingham is one of a number of British grass-court events held before Wimbledon, which begins on 3 July.

Boulter looked uncomfortable with proceedings in Birmingham as she complained to the umpire about some shots she felt were long but were not called and Zhu moved to a first-set win.

She took Zhu’s serve immediately in the second set and while the 39th-ranked Zhu instantly broke back, Boulter went on to win 12 from 13 points in a run to go from 3-1 down to 4-3 up.

There were no British women in the top 100 at the cut-off point for this year’s Wimbledon, with the players reliant on wildcards or having to come through three rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw.

Earlier, second seed Jelena Ostapenko survived a scare to beat the Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova 6-2 5-7 6-1, ranked 49 in the world.

The Latvian will face Venus Williams in the next round with the American having secured an emotional three-set win against Italy’s Camila Giorgi on Monday.

Romania’s Sorana Cirstea also advanced with a 6-4 2-6 6-3 win over compatriot Ana Bogdan.