Watson heads GB challenge

HEATHER WATSON has been selected for the Great Britain team at next month's European Winter Cup. The 15-year-old Guernsey sensation, who last year was crowned the under-16 British champion, will later this month fly over from Florida, where she is a student at the prestigious Nick Bollettieri Academy, to train with the team at the Lawn Tennis Association's headquarters in Roehampton before going to Latvia for the qualifying round.

A total of 30 European nations are taking part in the U-16 competition.

'It's one of the fantastic things - getting to represent your country,' said her father, Ian.

In their group, Watson and her British teammates will take on Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden and the Ukraine over the weekend of 8-10 February.

The top two countries will go through to the finals at Rochin, France, at the end of the month.

Watson has already represented Britain against the United States in the Maureen Connolly Trophy held in Texas at the end of September.

The British narrowly lost.

The Maureen Connolly came at the end of a great summer season for the Sarnian that saw her win the ITF U-18 Scottish Junior International Championships in Edinburgh which was followed by the British U-16 title.

Then, after her performance at the Maureen Connolly in which she won two rubbers out of three, she reached the final of an U-18 ITF ranking event in Montreal, Canada.

However, since that she has found it something of a struggle in competition against top international players who can be up to three years older than her.

At November's Eddie Herr International that was hosted by the Nick Bollettieri Academy, a tough draw saw her face the American U-16 number one, Melanie Oudin, in the second round.

Watson went down 6-0, 6-2 and Oudin went on to win the tournament.

Then at the Yucatan World Cup in Mexico the Guernsey girl lost in straight sets, 0-6, 4-6, to Russia's Viktoria Kamenskaya in the opening round.

Kamenskaya, a year older than Watson, went on to reach the quarter-finals before losing to the eventual winner, Belgium's Tamaryn Hendler.

'She's had a bit of a slump with her results,' said her father.

'She's finding it a bit difficult to balance her schoolwork and her tennis at the moment. After what was an unbelievable summer, I guess sport is like that.'

Watson is now taking part only in ITF U-18 ranking events with a view to racking up world ranking points.

Even though she has not made it further than the second round in the two most recent ITF competitions, she has progressed in the rankings because these tournaments have qualifying rounds and getting to the main event and then through the first round sees players' standings go up.

Watson's current ranking is 205.