She is seeing the ball well, striking the ball well and, perhaps more importantly than anything given her injury-enforced seven-month lay-off spanning 2025 and 2026, she appears healthy.
How ironic it is then that the powers that be within British tennis saw fit not to award her a wild card into this year’s ladies’ singles at Wimbledon, Watson’s world ranking having plummeted to the circa-500 mark due to that lengthy spell out of the game.
In a nutshell, she needed a favour from the Lawn Tennis Association and The All England Club, who jointly decide where the Wimbledon wild cards will go each year. She did not get one which, considering her popularity and contribution to the sport in Great Britain over the years, seemed strange bordering on unjust.
No wild card meant having to go through qualifying. Although Watson gave it her best shot, winning two matches, she ultimately fell at the third and final hurdle. And that meant no singles for the Sarnian at Wimbledon this year.
‘I wanted one a wild card, of course,’ Watson said. ‘It’s like a gift, isn’t it? And they can choose who they give the gift to.
‘Of course I was upset. Somebody said to me before quallies started that there’s no better way than qualifying, because it gets you in the zone [for Wimbledon].
'And I thought “Yeah, there is. It’s way better just to be in the main draw”.
‘I’ve made the main draw on my own many, many, many times.
'It’s not like I take a wild card every year. I felt bad about it and it was a lot to deal with actually, mentally.
‘It’s a very different experience this year for me. You’re at Wimbledon... but you’re not at Wimbledon. That’s weird.’
Despite being overlooked for a wild card into the singles, Watson’s presence has still been felt around The All England Club in the doubles competitions.
Last night she played into the twilight alongside fellow Brit Katie Boulter, losing a thrilling first round ladies’ doubles match to Katarzyna Piter of Poland and Anna Siskova of the Czech Republic.
In front of a large crowd gathered around Court 4, Watson and Boulter managed to save eight match points before finally succumbing 4-6, 7-6, 3-6 in a match lasting eight minutes short of three hours.
Later today she will partner Marcus Willis in the first round of the mixed doubles competition, which Watson memorably won 10 years ago alongside Henri Kontinen of Finland.
‘We threw the kitchen sink at them over and over and over again, and as soon as we started to get a bit of momentum or get a lead they would just claw their way back,’ said Watson of the defeat to Piter and Siskova.
‘We were starting to find our groove and, in the third set, were really doing the right things, but we just weren’t really rewarded. They just kept on coming up with unbelievable shots. In the end it just wasn’t meant to be.’
You need to be logged in to comment.