Angelique Kerber

It will be a meeting of the only two former champions in the women's draw, with Sharapova lifting the trophy a decade ago while Kerber was the winner in 2016.

The German endured a miserable 2017, slipping from world No 1 to outside the top 20, but she has been revitalised at the start of this season and is yet to lose a match.

Sharapova, still unseeded after returning from her 15-month doping ban, sees matches against the leading players as the best way to test her level.

A runner-up in Eastbourne in 2012 and 2014, German left-hander Kerber joins a line-up that includes Great Britain's Johanna Konta and defending champion Dominika Cibulkova, with seven of the world's top 10 female players entered for the event which begins on June 25.

Kerber, who also plays next week's Aegon Classic in Birmingham, said: "Eastbourne is a tournament I've loved playing over the years. The courts are world class and the fans are wonderful, so I'm very excited to get back there and get back playing on the grass."

The world No 1 won 6-4 6-4, breaking serve once in each set to clinch victory in 85 minutes and book her spot in the semi-finals of the hard court event.

However, world No 125 Watson gave a good account of herself and had chances to break in each set.

After losing her own serve in the seventh game of the opener, the 24-year-old came close to breaking back immediately when she led 40-15 on the German's serve.

Kerber, the top seed, cruised past Japanese qualifier Risa Ozaki 6-2 6-2 while Czech second seed Pliskova beat 15th-seeded compatriot Barbora Strycova 6-1 6-4.

Kerber was barely tested in her 62-minute match during which she displayed a great arsenal of shots and was all over her opponents' serve.

She moves on to face the winner of Monday's round-of-16 clash between Venus Williams and Russian seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The German would have replaced Serena Williams at the top of the rankings had she gone on to win the title but Svitolina prevailed 6-3 7-6 (7-3).

A rain delay and a medical time out conspired against Kerber but the tournament's number one seed never really got going until late in the second set when she won three games in a row to serve to force a decider.

However, Svitolina broke back and comfortably took the resulting tie break to complete a third straight victory over her opponent after one hour and 39 minutes of play.

Angelique Kerber secured her second grand-slam title with a three-set win over Karolina Pliskova in the US Open final.