The Guernsey star had to win back-to-back games in qualifying – beating both Ena Shibahara and Zeynep Sonmez on the same day – to reach the HSBC Championship main draw and she carried that momentum into the first round against Yulia Putintseva.
Although Watson is currently 137 places below the Kazakhstan player in the rankings, she had won three of their previous five meetings and she improved that career head-to-head in comprehensive fashion, winning the match brilliantly in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 in just 1hr 21min. on Court One to become the first British player into the second round.
She will now face another Kazakh in Elena Rybakina, the fourth seed and 2022 Wimbledon champion who had a first-round bye. Rybakina is ranked 11th in the world.
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