Wimbledon 2014: Heather Watson beats Ajla Tomljanovic
- Published
Heather Watson became the third British player to reach round two with an impressive straight-sets win over Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia at Wimbledon.
Watson came through 6-3 6-2 on Court Three to follow up Monday's victories by , external and Naomi Broady.
Britain's Samantha Murray was outclassed by former champion Maria Sharapova on Court One, losing 6-1 6-0.
Dan Smethurst lost 7-5 6-3 6-4 to John Isner, while Tara Moore's match against Vera Zvonareva was halted by bad light.
Moore won a second-set tie-break to level it at 4-6 7-6 (7-3) when play was suspended, meaning that four of the 11 British players who began the men's and women's singles remain in the competition.
Moore and Zvonareva will resume on Wednesday, the second match on court two after number two seed Li Na opens proceedings against Austrian Yvonne Meusburger at 1130 BST.
Watson, 22, made the running from the outset against Tomljanovic, who arrived at Wimbledon on the back of reaching the fourth round of the French Open.
The Croat, ranked seven places higher at 53 in the world, saw an early break point snuffed out as Watson attacked the net, and that set the tone for the entire contest.
Jo Durie on Watson's win |
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"Very well played, Heather Watson. That will feel very satisfying. She had to fight for it and gain control of the points, but she did that so well. It was such a clever performance. I was a little disappointed with Ajla Tomljanovic. I thought she could have done more, but it's a learning process for her." |
Watson fought off more break points on her way to serving for the set and, after a Hawk-Eye ruling denied her first time around, she grabbed her next chance to move ahead.
The errors began to flow from Tomljanovic in the second set, with Watson in rampant form as she nervelessly served out to love to reach round two for only the second time in five attempts.
"I have had a good run [recently], and coming to Wimbledon with confidence I really wanted to make the most of it, so I was a bit nervous going on to court," said Watson, who will play German ninth seed Angelique Kerber in round two.
"I struggle to eat before I go on, and actually my jaw was locking and I couldn't even bite through my banana.
"But it was good. Once I got on court, I got moving. I made sure I moved my feet a lot in the warm-up to get going, and as soon as we started playing, I got into it."
Murray, 26, was playing only her fourth match on the main tour and was up against a daunting opponent in Sharapova, who was fresh from winning her fifth Grand Slam title at the French Open.
The British number five, ranked 247, had a break point in the opening game but failed to convert, and from then on it was one-way traffic.
"It was a great experience." said Murray. "I've been on the court before only as a fan. I think I settled quite well at the beginning. I really enjoyed playing on a court like that."
Smethurst, from Lancashire, has enjoyed a successful year on the lower-level Futures tour, rising 160 places to 234 in the world, but he too was heavily outranked by his opponent.
The 23-year-old fashioned seven break points against the huge Isner serve but could not convert any, and the American earned another chance to go past the second round at Wimbledon for the first time.
"I didn't realise the crowd would get into it so much," said Smethurst. "I was overwhelmed by that. I've never had a crowd backing me like that before. That was a great experience."
Moore, given a wildcard like Broady and Smethurst, lost the first set on Court Two to an opponent severely lacking in matches.
Zvonareva had also been handed a wildcard into the draw as a former champion, after slipping to 566 in the rankings following 18 months out with injury and illness.
But the 21-year-old recovered from the disappointment of letting a 5-2 lead slip in the second set to win it in a tie-break before a halt was called, with play to resume on Wednesday.
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