Wilder triggers rematch clause
Heather takes her first title in four years
TYSON Fury’s American promoter Bob Arum says DeontayWilder has triggered his rematch clause for a third fight.
Wilder had 30 days to request it after losing hisWBC title to Fury and did so at the weekend.
Arum says Fury will then face the winner of Anthony Joshua’s June
HEATHER WATSON won her first title since 2016 yesterday with victory at the Mexican Open after bouncing back from a “heartbreaking” second set.
The British No2 triumphed 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 over Canada’s Leylah Fernandez to seal her fourth WTA Tour crown.
But she had to recover after squandering five championship points in the second-set tiebreak.
Watson, in fact, needed 10 match points to seal the trophy and revealed how she dealt mentally with her second-set profligacy.
She said: “I’m so happy to get my fourth title. It’s been a few years, so I’m just really, really happy I came through that match. 13 title defence against Kubrat Pulev.
“Wilder and his representatives have formerly notified us that they have accepted the rematch,” said Arum.
“It’s going to happen in the summer, middle of July.And if Joshua beats Pulev and Fury
It was so up and down. I had those match points in the second set and I wasn’t able to win that but I was really pleased with how I stayed in the moment and won that third set. It was heartbreaking losing the second set.
“But I reminded myself that I also saved a lot of set points before that. It was so close, both of us had our chances.
“I just had to leave that set behind me, even though I had my opportunities, and just remind myself it’s a tennis match and it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t win. Just play every point and focus on just that one point, that next point.”
Watson, 27, last won a title in 2016, also in Mexico, and it has beats Wilder, then why not do Joshua v Fury at the end of the year?
“We would certainly sit down with Eddie Hearn and work it out.” ❑KAL YAFAI’S run as Britain’s longest-reigning world champion was ended inTexas by Roman Gonzalez. Yafai was WBA super-flyweight king since 2016.
been a tough road since. She has dipped in and out of the world’s top 100 but she ended last season by reaching the final of the Tianjin Open and has not looked back.
She began 2020 by making the semi-finals of the Hobart International and Saturday’s victory will return her to the top 50 for the first time in nearly four years.
Rafael Nadal won the men’s title on Saturday with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over American Taylor Fritz, a player 11 years his junior.
The 33-year-old Spaniard said: “I couldn’t be happier.
“I played a great event from the beginning to the end.”
Novak Djokovic maintained his unbeaten start to 2020 by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final.