HEATHER WATSON is riding high after picking up her biggest victory to date in her young career.
The 17-year-old Guernsey tennis star (pictured), who signed terms with leading sport agency IMG and turned professional after sensationally winning last year’s US Junior Open, is competing in the Tangipahoa Tourism and Loeb Law Firm $25,000 Tennis Classic in Hammond, Louisiana, this week.
After going through two rounds of qualifiers, Watson, who is ranked 486th in the world, came up against former world number seven Nicole Vaidisova – and came out on top after an epic three-set battle.
The 6ft tall, 20-year-old Vaidisova, of the Czech Republic, was a student at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida where Watson is based.
Vaidisova reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2006, defeating Amelie Mauresmo and Venus Williams on the way before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The following year she reached her second Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open, made the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and the quarters at Wimbledon.
She obtained her highest world ranking of seven in May that year and she was regarded as a superstar in the making.
She made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon the year after as well.
However, her career then went off the boil and she now finds herself ranked 177 in the world.
In her first round match at Hammond with Watson on Wednesday, Vaidisova won the first set 6-4 before the islander came back to claim the second on a tie break 7-6 (10).
The deciding set also went to a tie break but again Watson showed her ever-improving mental and physical strength to hold out to win 7-6 (4).
Watson then faced fifth seed Monique Adamczak yesterday and defeated the 27-year-old Australian, who has a world ranking of 149, 6-4, 6-4.
The victory earned her a quarter-final with the number three seed from China, Shuai Zhang, ranked 145 in the world.
Watson is also through to the quarter-finals of the doubles with her British partner, Naomi Broady, after they got the better of Chieh-Yu Hsu and Petra Rampre 5-7, 7-6 (5), (10-8) and then Lu and Sun of China, the second seeds.
Article posted on 5th March, 2010 - 2.30pm
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