Top 20 breakthroughs in professional tennis circuit this year: Part Two – Tennis Special
18. Heather Watson (Great Britain)
Great Britain has been searching for a talent which could bring the lost tennis glory back and the finding proved fruitful with the 20-year-old Heather Watson. The right hander Briton has been one of the most talented youngsters
rising into the Top-100 WTA Rankings this season but is still to bag her maiden singles championship title in the professional circuit.
Riding a 29-24 winning record so far this year, Watson caught the eyes of tennis critics due to her resilience and strong baseline defence. Although her game lacks the required aggression and attacking manoeuvres, the British youngster
has managed to register some stunning victories this season, hunting down a number of superior ranked opponents on the tennis courts. She hasn’t been champion in the singles category but won two WTA Tour doubles titles this year.
Watson took off the 2012 WTA season as the 106th ranked player but consistent performances from the Brit youngster propelled her to the number 71 spot by the start of this month. In the initial part of the current circuit,
she had to go through the qualifying rounds of most every tournament to enter the main draw but her hard work has proven good for her in the end.
Her first breakthrough run on the WTA Tour came at the Miami Masters, where she reached till the third round of the Premier-level event. She was defeated by the current world number one, Victoria Azarenka, but kept her spirits
high to keep her impetus in the following tournaments. She started off the clay-court season from Estoril Open, marching into the main draw after clearing the qualifiers and went on to reach the round of 16. She fell to Petra Cetkovska that time but her world
rankings kept improving.
The 20-year-old Brit featured the second round of French Open and then the third round of the Wimbledon Championships this season. Her success at the successive Grand Slam campaigns propelled her to the Top-100 rankings for the
first time and she is hanging on to the 71st spot at the present, certainly way better from where she started off the season.
17. Lukas Lacko (Slovakia)
World number 65, Lukas Lacko, was ranked at number 112 in the ATP World Tour Rankings at the start of the 2012 professional circuit. The 24-year-old Slovak was off to a flyer in the season-opening Grand Slam event, the Australian
Open, reaching the third round after beating the likes of Ivan Ljubicic and Donald Young. His voyage was hampered by the Spaniard King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, but his decent propelled him in to the Top-100.
Lacko also performed well in Zagreb and claimed his career best world number 65 spot in the ATP men’s rankings. His other breakthrough run came at Wimbledon Championships, where he went all the way to the third round, falling to
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga that time. The Slovak contender is looking to break into the Top-50 before the conclusion of the running season and his dedicated efforts will certainly pay him off.
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