Heather Watson beats Eleni Daniilidou to enter the second round – Citi Open 2011
Heather Watson of Great Britain moved a step closer to win her first career title in Washington, D.C, when she defeated Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 and moved into the second round of the tournament.
Watson, ranked 104th in the world, had already met the Greek lady once before at the final qualifying round at the 2010 e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open where she lost the match in three sets, but this time she raised her standards
up a notch and cut the deficit to take the score on even terms 1-1.
Daniilidou had way too many errors in the opener as she did not hit the big points well and repeatedly played the ball too short. Both players played tremendous tennis on occasions, although there were some good rallies in which
they were not at the top of their game at the same time to make their second time meeting a classic encounter.
Watson, however, has surely never played better than she did in her first meeting with the Greek, who also looked in excellent shape at the beginning, whipping huge forehand down-the-line winners and even feeling confident enough
to take the score at 4-all.
The Greek woman served superbly at the start, missing only six points behind her first serve in the first set but, crucially, she failed to save two of her break points and Watson suddenly upped her game, clinching the first set
with six games to four.
At 1-1, in the second set Daniilidou, attempting to run around her forehand after Watson had cracked a big return, she put a forehand wide and gave Watson the chance to take the first set with a breadstick win.
The Brit had to score seventeen more points than the Greek in total to move it into the second round of the tournament where she will face Stephanie Dubois of Canada, who beat India’s Sania Mirza to set-up a clash with the Brit
here at College Park, Washington, D.C.
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