No doubles ‘De-Luxe’
HEATHER WATSON’S bid to equal or better her run to the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon ladies’ doubles last year has been dashed at the first hurdle.
Partnering Mandy Minella of Luxembourg, instead of her 2018 teammate Tatjana Maria, Watson lost an entertaining match on Court 8 which went the distance in front of an encouragingly large crowd considering Andy Murray was also playing men’s doubles at the same time.
After succumbing 6-4 in the first set, Watson and Minella dominated the second for the loss of just one game and seemed favourites at that point to go on and book their place in the second round.
Alas, the 16th seeds Raquel Atawo of the USA and Ukraine’s Lyudmyia Kichenok recovered their form to take a vital break of serve in the third before going on to clinch the match 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, much to the disappointment of the home crowd.
‘We gave it our best shot but in the end it wasn’t enough,’ said Watson afterwards.
‘I love playing doubles and Mandy and I had a lot of fun out there. Playing with Mandy was sort of a last-minute decision because Tatjana, my consistent partner, had a bit of an injury, so we didn’t exactly have much time to practise together, which didn’t help.
‘Full credit to them [Atawo and Kichenok] though. We were on top in the second [set] and playing some great tennis, but they did well to come back.
‘Doubles is a completely different sport to singles, which is why you see so many doubles specialists. They are a regular team. We’re not. We actually won more games than them overall, but it’s the number of sets that count.’
