Watson heads to Australia 'cold'

HEATHER WATSON will hit the ground running this year with her second appearance at the Australian Junior Open.

The next 12 months are crucial for the 17-year-old Guernsey star whose career took off after she won the US Junior Open last September.

It will see her finish her education in Florida, where she is based at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, and become a full-time professional as she looks to break into the women's circuit.

Her first tournament of the year is the 2010 Australian Open, which gets under way in Melbourne on Monday week.

It had been hoped that the world junior number three would go out and play at least one warm-up tournament beforehand, as she did last year, but exams have meant that she will have to go into the Grand Slam 'cold'.

After the finish of the Australian Open, Watson will fly to the UK where she will hopefully take part in an ITF $25,000 event in Sutton, south London, which runs from 1 to 7 February.

From there she will quickly make her way back to the US to take part in the $100,000 Midland in Michigan which begins on 8 February.

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