Watson left needing a Wimbledon leg-up

The 27-year-old Sarnian is currently ranked 115 in the world, just three places outside the cut for Wimbledon, which begins on Monday 1 July.

With no further adjustments to the singles rankings due before then, Watson needs three other players to pull out in order to make the first round draw on merit.

In the event of that not happening then she will either have to successfully navigate the notoriously brutal qualification event, which takes place at Roehampton the week beforehand, or rely on the All England Club giving her a wildcard.

‘I’m three out of main draw at the moment, which basically means I need three people to pull out through injury, or for whatever reason,’ Watson told the Guernsey Press this week.

‘That’s the way it is and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

‘I don’t think I’ll know until closer to the time. People wait as long as possible to see if they are fit, so if there are going to be any pull-outs then it’ll probably be late on,’ she added.

Watson’s form over the past few weeks has been resurgent after what can only be best described as a disappointing few months spanning the end of 2018 and the start of 2019.

In order to arrest her slide down the rankings, Watson did what several other big tennis names, including Andre Agassi, have done over the years when their form deserts them – compete at a lower level in order to restore some confidence.

‘The beginning of the year wasn’t good for me. I wasn’t fit, which didn’t help, and then it’s sort of a domino effect with the matches and the losses.

‘That’s when I decided to drop down a few levels and play some ITF (International Tennis Federation) tournaments in Japan. As soon as I got that one match win it all sort of kicked off for me and I ended up winning a tournament in Fukuoka in May.

‘This last month it’s all clicked and come together because I’ve been putting in the work and training hard. I’m super-fit at the moment and those match wins breed confidence, which is good coming into the grass court season. You always want to do well when you’re back playing in your own country.’

Having reached the quarter-finals at Surbiton at the start of June, Watson can count herself unfortunate to have drawn the in-form number four seed Maria Sakkari of Greece in the first round at Nottingham, a rain-affected encounter she ultimately lost 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday.

‘She [Sakkari] is obviously a very good player and really on form, but I was feeling good about it because I’d been playing really well on grass and had had a lot of matches.

‘It was just a shame for me it was moved indoors because it then becomes a completely different ball game. Obviously it’s the same for all the players, and it hasn’t affected me in a negative way at all, but I was looking forward to it being on grass. That’s what I was ready for. Unfortunately there’s nothing you can do about the weather.’

Watson will now turn her attention to the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, also on grass, which weather depending is scheduled to start on Sunday.