Watson’s power too much for Vekic

The UK’s No.2 women’s player Heather Watson showed her strength when she sent Croatian Donna Vekic packing in straight sets at the Hobart International yesterday.

The 6-0 6-4 quarter-final win set up a semi-final against defending champion Elise Mertens.

The 22-year-old Belgian advanced with the pre-match withdrawal of Romanian Monica Niculescu – also her opponent in last year’s Hobart final – with a neck injury, putting her in doubt for the Australian Open next week.

It set up an intriguing semi-final between last year’s champion and Watson the 2015 title holder.

The last time they met was in Luxembourg on hard court, where Mertens won 6-4 6-4.

“We’re not too dissimilar in terms of game style,” Watson said.

“We are both pretty solid and try to play aggressive.

“We make a lot of balls, so there will be longer rallies.

“She obviously loves it here and has been playing really well. Last year she shot up the rankings, so it will be a really tough match.”

Watson, 25, won the first nine games of her quarter-final to take the first set 6-0 and hold a 5-0 lead in the second.

Then Vekic’s game came alive and she won the next four games and was serving at 4-5 to equalise the second set.

Despite the brave comeback, Vekic, who won the 2017 Nottingham tournament, double-faulted to give Watson match-point and struck a backhand wide of the line to give the Brit passage into the semis.

“From the beginning of the match I played really well, pretty flawless tennis, no mistakes,” Watson said.