Wimbledon 2018: Defending champion Donna Vekic pushed all the way by Gabriella Taylor in Nottingham

Vekic dug deep to come through 7-5 5-7 7-6 (7/3) in a marathon match that fell four minutes short of three hours

(Getty)

British number five Gabriella Taylor pushed defending champion Donna Vekic all the way before losing their first round match at the Nottingham Open.

Taylor, who scored a stunning win over fellow Briton Heather Watson at Surbiton last week, almost repeated the feat as she grabbed an early break in the deciding set.

But Vekic, who required extensive physio on a back injury early in the third, dug deep to come through 7-5 5-7 7-6 (7/3) in a marathon match that fell four minutes short of three hours.

Nevertheless it was another promising performance from the 20-year-old Taylor, who reached a career-best 168 in the world last week.

Earlier Watson bounced back from her shock defeat to Taylor to move into the second round with a convincing win.

The 26-year-old Watson needed only 73 minutes to claim a convincing 6-1 6-3 win over American world number 252 Danielle Lao.

But there was another British player, Katie Swan, who went down 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 to Germany's world number 117 Mona Barthel.