Heather Watson capsizes Sabine Lisicki in the opening clash - Toray Pan Pacific Open 2012
World number 30, Sabine Lisicki, stooped to the 78th ranked British player, Heather Watson, in the opening round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Monday. She lost the match in straight sets 4-6, 6(3)-7. It was an exciting
start for the British qualifier who is looking to register as many upsets at Tokyo as possible. The first one took an hour and 37 minutes.
The 23-year-old German lost her second head-to-head encounter to the 20-year-old Briton. It has been a painful and agony filled season for the 30th ranked German. She couldn’t play the bulk of the season due to several
injuries and her comebacks have been short lived as well.
Watson is enjoying a stunning run of form this season. She looks set to break into the Top-50 players by the end of the season at least. No drama was witnessed at the hard courts of Tokyo for the first nine games of the match except
a couple of rare scenes where Lisicki and Watson had to earn the serve hold. The tables were turned upon the German in the 10th game when she failed to win a single point on her serve and gifted the set away after a good start.
Lisicki started the second set with a breakthrough and held her serve to take a lead of two games. However, three successive breakpoints falling in favour of Watson with the ratio of 2:1 equalized the scores at 3-3. Both players
capitalized on their serves to take the scores at 6-6. A pure old fashion match-up featuring serve holds was witnessed between the two athletes.
In a tie-breaker, the 20-year-old Briton rushed away to lead of 6-1 courtesy successive mini-breaks. She lost just two points before bagging the match point completed the upset on the eve of Monday. Heather Watson will face the
toughest competition in the second round of the competition when she locks horns with the second seed Russian former world number one, Maria Sharapova. It will be very difficult for her to keep intact the series of breakthroughs but anything can happen during
a tennis match.
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