Marina Erakovic and Heather Watson’s partnership going strong – Tennis Special
If Andy Murray is making Great Britain proud with his performances on the men’s side, then Heather Watson is not leaving behind, as she is carrying British flag on the WTA World Tour with sheer brilliance.
British women have failed to impress on the WTA Tour for a long time now but Watson is making strides towards the higher rankings.
The British number one captured her second doubles title last week and it looks like she would not stop shortly. Her partnership with New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic has developed quite well and they are moving up in the rankings.
However, it is pertinent to note that Andy Murray did not choose Watson as his partner is the mixed doubles event at the London Olympics. Instead, he played with British number four at that time, Laura Robson. Watson was disappointed
after Murray’s decision but she did not get de motivated.
Erakovic and Watson defeated the Latvian-American pair of Liga Dekmeijere and Irina Falconi in the Texas Tennis Open final in Dallas on Saturday to win their second title of the season.
Erakovic and Watson won last eight games of the contest to secure it in straight sets 6-3, 6-0 in just 52 minutes.
The Kiwi-Brit combination did not allow their rivals to settle down, breaking them in the first and third game to start with a 3-0 lead. Dekmeijere and Falconi pulled one back in the fourth and held their following serve to reduce
the trail to 2-3. However, the Latvian-American failed to hold when they served to stay in the set at 3-5, losing it 3-6.
Both teams found it difficult to put in their second serves correctly, as Erakovic/Watson committed three double faults and their opponents went one ahead with four. None of the two combinations succeeded in hitting an ace till
the end of the set. Erakovic and Watson inflicted most of the damage on Dekmeijere and Falconi with the help of their first serves and second returns, claiming 10 of the 14 and six of the eight points on them respectively.
Erakovic and Watson gained complete command on the proceedings afterwards, as they did not lose even a single game in the second set. The New Zealander-British tandem struck three times and capitalised on the triple advantage to
claim it 6-0.
The fourth seeds did not hit any ace once again but also kept their double fault at zero in the second set. Erakovic and Watson were better than their opponents in each and every department of the game, winning eight of the 10
first and all the four second serve points. They also grabbed seven of the nine first and five of the seven second returns.
During the post match press conference, Watson said, “Stanford was the first time we played together, and the second time we played together was here - so we're doing pretty well together! We just take it match by match. We were
just focusing on our first match when we got here, then as each one progressed we did the same, and here we are."
Erakovic added, "We're going to play US Open, we're going to play Québec City, we haven't even talked about Asia yet but I'm hoping there too."
Erakovic and Watson had also captured the Bank of the West Classic crown in Stanford last month.
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