Battle of the Brits as Watson takes on Murray
HEATHER Watson is ready to give her Wimbledon campaign one last big push when she faces fellow Briton Jamie Murray over the net in today’s mixed doubles final.
The British number two singles player will bounce back into the world’s top 100 tomorrow and feels the grass-court stretch has provided the spur that her career was needing.
But 25-year-old Watson is making no secret of her growing fatigue after playing six weeks back to back.
Watson is aching for a rest, as is as her team-mate who decided against joining his partner at morning practice.
Watson said: “I’m really happy my ranking’s started to go up again and after we play the final on Sunday I’ll get a bit of time off, because I’ve been playing every week. I think it’s paid off but I’m a bit tired now.”
Standing in the way of Watson and Kontinen is the new partnership of Murray and Martina Hingis, the 22-time grand slam champion who won her first Wimbledon title 21 years ago, as a 15-year-old in women’s doubles alongside Helena Sukova.
It will be the first final between opposing British players since the 1961 women’s singles final, when Angela Mortimer beat Christine Truman.
Watson is treating it as just another match, and said the approach would be to “just keeping doing the same thing we’re doing, have a good time, stay positive”.
But it will be a Centre Court occasion, with the winners sharing a £100,000 prize pot, and heading into the showpiece match Watson has paid tribute to Kontinen’s contribution. The 27-year-old is the men’s doubles world number one, and Watson laughed off talk that Kontinen says she is “the one” making their partnership click.
“He’s the one,” Watson said. “I find Henri so enjoyable to play with. We have a great time out there. Even if I miss a simple ball I’d usually make, or don’t put away a volley, he’s so supportive, and that makes me feel great for the next point.
“Henri tells me what to do and I try my best to do it, and then if I succeed he just goes and wins the point for us.”
Jamie Murray is bidding to win the mixed doubles for a second time, after triumphing with Jelena Jankovic 10 years ago.
“People mention it to me and it seems like so long ago. I was only 21 at the time,” Murray said.
“I’d just started playing on the main tour and we ended up winning. I’d never played mixed doubles before.” ROGER Federer’s eighth Wimbledon title may appear to be destiny but the man himself knows Marin is perfectly capable of spoiling the party. Federer has made serene progress through the fortnight and watched all his usual major rivals fall by the wayside. This will be the first grand slam final since the US Open in 2009 where Federer has faced someone other than Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray. And on that occasion in New York, he was stunned by Juan Martin del Potro. “Thank God I’ve played also guys who were not called Rafa, Andy or Novak in the past,” he said. “From that standpoint, I don’t want to say it’s more relaxed going into it, because I have a good head-tohead record against Marin, even though the matches were extremely close. “But it’s not like we’ve played against each other 30 times. You don’t feel like you have to reinvent the wheel. It’s more straightforward. It’s a nice change, but it doesn’t make things easier.” Cilic has only won one of his previous seven meetings against Federer, but that stands out as one of the more remarkable performances of recent years. Croatian Cilic simply overpowered Federer in the semi-finals of the US Open in 2014 and did the same against Kei Nishikori in the final to gatecrash the grand slam winners’ circle. He has been knocking at the door for many years at Wimbledon and 12 months ago had three match points against Federer in the quarter-finals before losing in five sets. Federer rates Cilic’s performance in New York as one of the best against him. “Conditions were fast, he was