Watson breezes through as beaten Evans gets rankings lift

HEATHER WATSON battled her way into the second round of the Australian Open but Dan Evans’s campaign came to an end with a straight-sets defeat by Yoshihito Nishioka.

The British No 1 had the carrot of a potential third-round match with Novak Djokovic but was second-best against his Japanese opponent and lost 6-4 6-3 6-4.

Evans said: “I knew it would be difficult. In all honesty, I didn’t want him to win against (Laslo) Djere.

“When it was windy like that, I knew exactly how he would play and I couldn’t break him. I didn’t play great, but all credit to him, he played pretty good.

“Some days you look forward to matches and I didn’t look forward to it. I just find him overly awkward.”

Despite the disappointing end to his first grand slam tournament as a seed, Evans can reflect on an excellent start to the year, with a new career-high ranking of 32 thanks to his tremendous performances for Great Britain at the ATP Cup.

He said: “Obviously to start the year with such drama with my matches and then the doubles at ATP Cup, I can only look back and be happy.

“It was great to be there, part of that tournament, and then the grand slams are always good. I love coming to Melbourne. I’ve enjoyed it. It was a difficult day.

“But I’ve got to look back at a lot of points and good moves up the rankings.”

There was much better news for Watson, whose match against Kristyna Pliskova was a victim of the overloaded schedule on Tuesday and held back.

Windy conditions in Melbourne made life tricky but it was tall Czech Pliskova, the identical twin sister of world No 2 Karolina, who ended up struggling.

That had a lot to do with Watson, who was unlucky to lose the first set but fought back brilliantly, sealing the second set with an ace before taking the match 4-6 6-3 6-1.

Watson said: “Being the firstround match and it being postponed, I felt a bit nervous on court in the first set and was a bit tense. But after that I managed to loosen up and relax and start enjoying it.”

British No 2 Watson arrived in Melbourne in good form after reaching the semi-finals of the Hobart International and she should feel positive for her match with 16th seed Elise Mertens today after beating her in Tasmania.