Daily Mail

HEATHER: THIS IS JUST THE START OF TROPHY LIFE

- By MIKE DICKSON

HEATHER WATSON landed back in Britain yesterday and quickly insisted that she will win more WTA silverware next year after victory in the Japan Open final. En route to spending a precious week with her family in Guernsey, the 20-year-old (below) stopped off in London and pledged that there are more titles on the way. ‘I definitely hope so and I would be very disappoint­ed ppointed if there aren’t,’ she said. ‘I feel like I could have done this earlier on, I just didn’t focus hard enough. ‘Now that I have learned that, there will be some more in the future.’ She wishes to ensure e that she does not get ahead of herself, but made the valid point that there are more chances in the women’s game right now for swift progress as it does not have the same ‘Big Four’ players who have dominated the big titles in recent years in the men’s game. ‘I haven’t set my goals yet for 2013 but I will look at getting in the top 40 before I look at getting in the top four,’ she said. ‘This year I wanted to get to the top 50 and did it in the end. In the men’s game it’s very much that you have your top few players who win week in week out, they always seem to come through. ‘In the women’s game it’s different and anyone on their day has their opportunit­y to win. If you look at Angelique Kerber and Sara Errani, they were ranked around aro 100 last year and now they are in the top 10. ‘The women’s game has a lot more opportunit­ies for other players.’ Watson reiterated that the presence of fellow Briton Laura Robson will spur her on. ‘We are both very competitiv­e and when one sees the other do well it makes us want to do better, but we can still be friends,’ she said. British crowds will get a chance to see Watson in action before the end of the year as she will play a mixed doubles match alongside Tim Henman at the Statoil Masters event at the Royal Albert Hall on December 6.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom