French Open champion Ashleigh Barty can become world No.1 for the first time after rival Naomi Osaka suffered an early setback on grass.
The likelihood of Australian Barty jumping to the top spot grew on Friday morning (AEST) when WTA rankings leader Osaka was beaten in the last 16 of the Birmingham Classic.
Osaka slipped to a 6-2 6-3 defeat against Kazakhstan's world number 43 Yulia Putintseva, dealing a blow to her preparations for Wimbledon.
Second-seed Barty went safely through to the quarter-finals as a 6-3 6-1 winner against American Jennifer Brady but must capture the title on Sunday to depose Osaka.
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The in-form Barty needed just 59 minutes to dispose of Brady and extend her winning streak to an impressive nine matches.
She will meet either American veteran Venus Williams or China’s Wang Qiang in the quarter-finals.
“I felt really good out here today, I felt much better than I did my first round,” Barty said.
“… It was important for me to try and nullify her serve as much as I could today and I felt like I served well and looked after my own service games pretty well.”
In just her second match since claiming her maiden grand slam singles title at Roland Garros, Barty’s patience was tested with two rain delays.
The cricket-loving 23-year-old revealed she kept herself entertained by checking in on Australia’s World Cup clash against Bangladesh.
“Both times we went off I flicked on the (scores), the Aussies are batting, so looked at the scores but they were pretty quick turnarounds so it was easy to just warm up again and come back out here.”