Britain’s Heather Watson produced one of the best performances of her short career yesterday, in the opening round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
The 19 year old wildcard from Guernsey recovered from 5-0 down in the final set to beat Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-4).
Watson made a strong start against Cirstea, who is ranked 48 in the world, winning the first set 6-3, in a match played in blustery conditions on the Grandstand Court.
The Romanian then took the second set 6-3 as she started to work her powerful forehand to good effect.
Cirstea powered through two successive Watson service games at the start of the decider to lead 3-0 and, after surviving two break points in the fourth game, added another break to go 5-0 up.
Then the comeback began, with Watson playing confidently and consistently from the back of the court, forcing errors particularly from the Cirstea backhand. She won six games in a row including a break for 5-5, saving two match points from 40-15.
It went into a deciding tie-break, in which Watson impressively held her nerve before being congratulated at the side of the court by her coach, Mauricio Hadad, Fed Cup captain Judy Murray and the watching Nick Bollettieri, former coach of Andre Agassi.
“I’ve been having a tough season, getting some tough draws,” Watson said afterwards.
“I’m just trying to find that confidence and the only way to do that is by fighting through every match I play.
“When it got to 5-0 I just thought I might as well just go for it. I just kept fighting for every single point and, in the end, it worked out in my favour.
“I’d been very cautious with my movement but now finally I am playing care-free with the ankle, not thinking about it. I came back sooner than I should have because I wanted to play matches.”
Watson now plays world number 28 Lucie Safarova in the second round.
Elsewhere, British number one Elena Baltacha lost 6-7 6-3 6-2 to Zhang Shaui of China in her opening match.
And Britain’s number two Anne Keothavong, despite being the second seed in qualifying, was knocked out 6-4 6-3 by Misaki Doi of Japan in the first round, while Noami Broady was also beaten 6-3 6-0, by qualifying top seed Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine.
Lizzie Flint, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
