Top seed Mertens next for Watson
THE happy hunting ground that is Hobart came up trumps once again for Heather Watson yesterday.
A suspension in play for rain merely delayed the Guernsey star’s progress into the quarter-finals of the Hobart International as she overcame Fiona Ferro in straight sets on the West Court.
Watson, who is 38 places below the world No. 63 French player in the rankings, edged a tight opening set 7-5 in the tie-break.
The Sarnian then moved 3-2 ahead in the second before rain arrived to halt the match temporarily.
On the resumption, both players held their next service games before Watson broke the 22-year-old Ferro in the eighth game.
She then successfully served out for the match to win 7-6 (5), 6-3 in 1hr 52min.
Watson came through qualifying to reach the main draw of this year’s edition of the WTA International level event that she won back in 2015.
The toughest challenge of the 2020 tournament awaits the 27-year-old in today’s quarter-finals as she will face top seed Elise Mertens of Belgium.
With rain showers threatening, the world No. 17 was in no mood to hang around on Centre Court and she dispatched her second-round opponent, the world No. 61 Viktoria Kuzmova, 6-1, 6-0 in just 56min.
Before heading to the other side of the world, Watson was one of the guests on an episode of a Question of Sport, which will be broadcast tomorrow evening on BBC 1 at 7.30pm.
She appears alongside Great Britain sprinter Adam Gemili, former England footballer Dean Ashton and ex England cricketer Jonathan Trott as well as regular team captains Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell and host Sue Barker.
