Double glory in one week for Heather Watson – Tennis News
Briton booming starlet, Heather Watson, is now the number one British tennis star and she is just 20-year-old. She reached the second round of the Bank of West Classic and surpassed the former number one Briton, Anne Keothavong,
who was dumped in the first round of the tournament at Stanford that forced her to slip one place to world number 76.
Watson jumped seven places from 79th spot to 71st in the latest edition of the rankings list being issued by the Women Tennis Association on Monday. The second good news for the young Briton came on the eve of Saturday
when she won her maiden Women Tennis Association premier title but that was in doubles category at California. She partnered with the Kiwi superstar, Marina Erakovic, to outclass the experienced duo of Vania King of American and Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia.
It was not an easy triumph by any means and Watson/Erakovic grabbed the triumph digging deep 7-5, 7-6(9).
On winning her first ever premier title of her professional career, Watson commented, "This is my first WTA title, so I'm really happy right now. It's such a nice feeling getting to the end of the week and being the last ones here.
We knew it wasn't going to be an easy match today - they're both great players and we knew we would really have to win it, they weren't going to give it to us."
Watson’s best friend, Laura Robson, who is always her doubles partner couldn’t accompany her to Stanford because she was entitled to play the XXV Itlaiacom Open, contested in Palermo, Italy. She performed emphatically well in that
tournament; reaching the semi-final stage of the tournament; outclassing the seeded players including the second seed local, Roberta Vinci, and the fifth seed Spanish star, Carla Suarez Navarro.
The cracking run for the left-handed 18-year-old Briton helped her to break into Top-100 players list. She jumped 22 places to world number 91 and that makes it four British players in the Top-100 list for the first time since
1991. Elena Baltacha who commenced the season as the number one Briton is now the 100th ranked player in the world.
Watson and Keothavong will take part in the upcoming tournament in California, The Mercury Insurance Open. So, the glory of being the number one Briton can be short lived for the 20-year-old. However, she has the ability to help
herself break into the Top-50’s until the start of the year’s fourth Grand Slam Championship, the US Open.
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