Edinburgh triumph for star Watson

HEATHER WATSON brilliantly won the ITF under-18s Scottish Junior International Championships at the weekend. The 15-year-old Sarnian, who is a student of the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, was in devastating form as she took the singles title at the Edinburgh tournament.

The 2006 British under-14 champion said she had done it for her island.

'Before I got to Edinburgh I thought to myself, I want to win this one for Guernsey, not just for me and my mum and dad but for Guernsey and this made me more determined,' she said.

The former Ladies' College student was seeded number four in the draw with players from USA, Slovakia, Belgium, Bulgaria and Malta among others.

To underline the strength of the competition, four of the top-10 rated juniors from the UK were entered.

In the first round Watson played Francesca Lewis and won 6-4, 6-0.

'I got off to a slow start in my first-round match - I was 4-2 down in the first set and then when I worked out her style and settled down, I won 10 games running,' said Watson.

In the second round she met Alexandra Walker who had just defeated one of her best friends. The Guernsey star was pleased to exact some vicarious revenge and won the match 6-2, 6-2.

USA's Elizabeth Begley was Watson's next opponent in the quarter-finals which she comfortably won 6-3, 6-1.

Next up, Watson anticipated a tough semi-final against Gally de Wael.

The Belgian had breezed to the semis without dropping a set.

De Wael was indeed a tough opponent and the match was an epic, lasting well over two hours with many long and tense rallies.

That, however, was not reflected in the score, with the Sarnian coming out on top 6-3, 6-2.

'I was very pleased with my semi-final win,' said Watson.

'I needed to be patient with controlled hitting and I never lost concentration.'

A tough final was also anticipated against Olivia Smith, who had defeated the number one seed.

The Sarnian again started slowly and she dropped her first set of the tournament.

But she bounced back to take 12 out of the next 13 games to win the match 4-6,

6-1, 6-0.

'I was delighted with my performance and just need to work out how to get away from those slow starts,' said Watson.

'I need to work a little on starting the matches as well as I am finishing them.'

Her mother, Michelle, who was in Edinburgh to watch her daughter play, said that the victory had earned vital world ranking points.

'I am obviously delighted with the high standard and strong aggressive hitting of her tennis when she got going,' said Watson senior.

'I could see the actual point in some matches when she moved up a gear.

'I am particularly delighted that this ITF tournament win will mean 40-50 world ranking points to help her climb the world junior rankings and that has got to be our number one objective.'

Another massive bonus was that Watson, playing for the first time with a new partner, Samantha Vickers, the number seven-ranked under-18 player in the UK, also reached the final of the girls' doubles.

However, the partnership got off to the worst possible start with a 6-0 lost set in their first match.

But from there they fought back and won that contest to then defeat the number two seeds in the quarter final and in the end were disappointed to lose the final 6-2, 6-4 against the number one seeds.

After a gruelling schedule of nine matches in six days, Watson has now travelled to the south coast of England to take part in another ITF tournament in Winchester.