Watson exits, but Norrie is through to face Nadal
BRITAIN’S presence in the Australian Open women’s singles ended when Heather Watson was beaten by Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in the second round.
After Johanna Konta and Fran Jones had fallen at the first hurdle, it was left to Watson to fly the flag – but despite winning the first set she succumbed 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-2 to the 21st seed.
It was a battling display by Watson, though, whose participation in the tournament will be remembered for her gruelling 15-day hard lockdown in a Melbourne hotel after arriving into Australia on a plane where another passenger had coronavirus.
The 28-year-old occupied herself in quarantine by running a 5k in her hotel room and she had to put in some more hard yards as Kontaveit surged into a 4-1 lead early on.
But Watson, ranked 60 in the world, began to find her range and a number of impressive winners saw her win five of the next seven games to take it to a tie-break, where she again rallied from 2-5 to take it 7-5.
An exchange of breaks saw the second set finely poised at 4-4 before the Estonian pounced, winning the final two games to claim the set and send it to a decider.
Kontaveit, who reached the last eight of this tournament a year ago, sensed blood and rattled through the final set, reeling off five successive games to book her place in the third round as Watson’s campaign ended.
The Briton told reporters: “I’m really happy with the way I played.
“I hung in there – it was such a tough match. The momentum was swinging. I managed to fight for everything.
“It was really close, just a few points here and there, which could have changed the match.
“I left it all out there. She is a really tough opponent, and it is credit to her. A lot of those serves that I hit I feel like against a lot of other players they would have been free points. But she did a really good job of getting them back.”
Elsewhere, Sofia Kenin admitted that she allowed nerves to get the better of her after the defence of her title ended in the second round.
The American claimed her maiden grand slam title at last year’s event, but there is to be no repeat as she was dumped out 6-3, 6-2 by world number 65 Kaia Kanepi.
Kenin said she struggled to handle the pressure of being the defending champion.
“I obviously felt like I couldn’t find my rhythm. I was obviously way too nervous,” she said.
“I guess it’s the outside pressure. But I felt really nervous. I haven’t felt my game for I don’t know how long, I haven’t really felt my game here so well, even in my first round.
“I feel like everyone was always asking me, ‘Would you want to? Do you see yourself getting there and winning again?’ Obviously I said yes.
“I know I couldn’t really handle the pressure. I’m not used to this, so right now I just got to figure out how to play at that level that I played at.”
Cameron Norrie kept the British interest up in Melbourne and secured a third-round meeting with Rafael Nadal with victory over Russian Roman Safiullin in the men’s singles.
Norrie beat the world number 183 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in a match which finished shortly before midnight following a rain delay.
The Briton said: “I think we both raised our level and I’m happy to get through. I’m playing Rafa next and I’ve never played him before, so it will be a great experience for me.”