Defending champion Katie Boulter reached the third round of the Nottingham Open with an assured win over Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino.

The British number one broke early in both sets in her 6-4 6-4 victory to set up a quarter-final tie with either fifth seed Magdalena Frech or Tatjana Maria.

But despite her win, secured in one hour 14 minutes, the third seed warned “it’s going to take some time” before she hits her top form on grass.

Boulter is building towards Wimbledon, which starts on 1 July.

Having needed more than three hours to beat Harriet Dart in the first round, she got off to a dream start on centre court by breaking Marino’s second service game.

She defended two break points while serving for the opener before taking the set with a fine forehand Marino could only return into the net.

In the second, she broke twice to lead 3-0 but then uncharacteristically lost her next service game having been 40-0 up.

The world number 30 was unperturbed though, breaking Marino for a fourth time to win the match.

“I’m very realistic, for me it’s about bedding in some of this momentum,” she added.

“I’m going to take it one match at a time and see how far we can go.”

Later on Wednesday British number five Heather Watson was beaten by Czech sixth seed and 2016 champion Karolina Pliskova 6-4 6-4.