GO FOURTH AND CONQUER

Heather ends the wait with biggest win of her career

STEP aside Emma Raducanu – there is a new queen of Wimbledon in town.

At the 42nd time of asking, Heather Watson had reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam.

And the fact it happened at SW19 just made it feel that extra bit special for the British No.4 after beating Kaja Juvan in straight sets to secure the greatest win of her career.

A sublime drop shot picked off her toes was the moment Watson killed off her Slovenian opponent and she raised both arms to the skies before sinking to her knees, while the rest of Court One rose to its feet.

Even the sun had popped through the clouds to mark Watson’s moment of personal history as she maintained the British charge towards the second week of the Championships.

Watson had returned to action on Thursday to complete her thirdround win over China’s Wang Qiang, having admitted she had a lack of sleep the night before and needed caffeine gel to give her a boost.

But she was wide awake this time in what turned out to be a thrilling contest, which saw Watson and Juvan become impossible to separate in a first set which went to a tie break.

Watson charged into a 6-3 lead but blew all three set points before taking the fourth one when Juvan double-faulted.

Watson was reaching for the stars while Juvan was heading to Hell, as the world No.62 suffered a meltdown that allowed the Channel Islander to storm into a 5-0 lead in the second set.

Juvan lists painting as one of her interests and she was witnessing Watson stroke towards a masterpiece from the opposite side of the net, winning 11 points on the spin at one stage.

The home favourite had the match in the palm of her hand and some of her shots were bordering on showboating. But when Watson got to within two points of victory, Juvan launched a spirited fightback to win the next two games and threaten to win a third one as well.

Back in 2015, Watson had served for the match against Serena Williams in a bid to reach the fourth round but fell at the final hurdle.

It was a crushing moment which she lodged in her brain at the time, vowing then it would spur her on to make round four in the future.

Little did she realise at the time it would take her seven years to achieve the goal and perhaps flashbacks of the Williams loss were hampering her charge towards the finishing line.

But Watson held herself together this time to seal the deal 7-6 6-2 and the celebrations could begin.