Picture by Paul Guillou
FOLLOWING her at stunning victory at the Yucatan World Cup, Heather Watson has broken into the world’s top 40 junior players.
The news that she had jumped 50 places to 34th spot came the day before she begins her next competitive campaign in the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships.
The 16-year-old Sarnian (pictured), who last month won gold in the girls’ singles at the Youth Commonwealth Games in Pune, India, had her best result to date at the weekend when she beat Romanian Ana Bogdan, the world number seven and the tournament’s number one seed in the final of the ITF grade one event in Mexico.
Watson was ranked 84th prior to her success. ‘I’m so happy,’ said Watson yesterday from Florida, where she is a student at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy.
‘To be honest, in that match I had the best body language. I didn’t get angry once and I stayed positive. I didn’t stop trying and it worked.’
After losing the final’s opening set 6-3, Watson then found herself 5-3 behind in the second and 30-0 down, two points away from losing, in the ninth game, before she came back to win the set 7-5.
Watson carried the momentum into the third, which she won 6-2 to claim the match and the tournament.
Her mother Michelle was with her in Mexico.
‘I’m very delighted,’ she said.
‘She was down and out, but she wasn’t playing badly. She played very well throughout.
‘But the one good thing is that she’s picked up her serves.
‘Her serves have got stronger throughout the year.
‘She had three or four second serve aces.’
Watson junior has had no time to rest on her laurels as she takes part in the ‘Eddie Herr’, which is held at the Bollettieri Academy.
She is entering the singles competition and also the doubles with Stephanie Cornish, with whom she reached the semi-finals of the girls’ doubles at the US Junior International Hard Court Championships in August.
Watson is bullish about her chances.
‘I’ve always got to feel confident and hopefully I can do well in this one too,’ she said.
The main draw for this week’s tournament was not available yesterday.ascoones@guernsey-press.com
Article posted on 2nd December, 2008 - 2.30pm
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