Watson targets Tokyo

After leaping back into the top 100 of the world ranking following her brilliant run to the final of the Tianjin Open in China last week, the Guernsey player has revealed that returning to the Olympics is top of her agenda for 2020.

Despite admitting that she did not expect to do so well in Tianjin, where she won four times before suffering a 6-4, 6-4 final defeat to Rebecca Peterson after the showpiece was moved indoors due to rain, Watson has been buoyed by her performances and a rise to 88th in the rankings as well as a guaranteed place in the Australian Open main draw at the start of next year.

‘I’m just in a really good place and I think that’s showing in my results,’ the 27-year-old said.

‘Even though I haven’t won as many matches at WTA level this year, I’ve still won a lot of matches in the back end of the year. Yeah, I hope it continues.

‘I’m feeling really positive for next year.’

Watson will now take a break before an intense pre-season training camp in Florida.

To qualify for the singles at Tokyo, she will need to improve her ranking by just over 30 places. Considering that she has a lack of ranking points to defend before May, that is certainly not out of the question if she maintains the form she showed last week.

‘Last year I was sort of chasing points to make main draw Australia and ended up not really doing myself any favours because I didn’t have a proper preparation for Australia last year,’ Watson said.

‘So now I’m done, I’m going to have a proper off-season and then pre-season and yeah just really excited and motivated for 2020, mostly because of the Olympics because I really want to be involved in that again as I’ve been involved in London and Rio.

‘That’s a big goal of mine, that’s what I’m really focusing on at the moment.’