HEATHER’S TALKING A GOOD GAME
Resurgent Watson settles nerves
For Heather Watson, the strain of bearing Briti s h hopes at Wimbledon manifests itself in strange ways. Yesterday it was a case of lockjaw.
Nerves meant the resurgent British No 1 was so uptight she was not just Sleepless in SW19, which is normal for her, but also incapable of opening her mouth ahead of her first round.
Happily the anxiety evaporated once she walked on court to meet Croatia’s highly rated Ajla Tomljanovic, and she was able to avoid the possibility of a Tuesday wipeout for the host nation with an ultimately comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory.
The overmatched Dan Smethurst and Samantha Murray were never likely to register a tick on the credit ledger for GB but the 22-year-old Channel Islander was burdened with expectation, especially in the absence of Laura robson.
‘I was a bit nervous and struggled to eat before I went on, actually my jaw was locking and I couldn’t even bite through my banana,’ said a beaming Watson after her match.
‘It’s just tension, I always get nervous but sometimes more than others and that’s never happened before. I didn’t sleep that great last night, I woke up at 4am, and I was ready to go. I did actually manage to get back to sleep for a bit. The sleeping thing is normal, more since I have been ill (with the glandular fever that helped wreck last season for her). So it’s usually just that and struggling to eat.’
The slump of 2013 means she has almost no points to defend between now and the end of the year, so with the way she is playing there can be every expectation that Watson will soon break back into the top 50.
That process would be accelerated if she could somehow defeat ninth seed German Angelique Kerber tomorrow. Watson’s mantra is that anyone can beat anyone in women’s tennis right now, so that outcome is just about possible.
You know you will get nothing less than wholehearted fight from the newly attacking version of Watson, and that showed through in her ability to fend off break points that her opponent, ranked eight places higher at 52, created in the first set.
That extra edge is partly a product of her tennis upbringing being outside the norm, having taken herself off to Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy in Florida at the age of 12. It is notable that the three British survivors into the second round have all largely done their own thing in their development. Naomi Broady has long been an outsider from any centralised system and Andy Murray has rarely ever been a part of it — who knows, the Lawn Tennis Association might just discern a message in there somewhere.
The LTA did provide financial support, it should be said, but after Watson helped spare the organisation’s blushes by winning, she extolled the virtues of branching out on her own.
‘I couldn’t stay in Guernsey and when I went to visit Bollettieri I knew it was the place for me,’ she said. ‘one of the reasons was that the weather was very good and also it was so competitive. But the weather plays a big part.’
Interestingly, Watson revealed that she has never been asked by the powers that be about why the Florida experience has been so beneficial.
one trusts that this might happen with the arrival of veteran coaching guru Bob Brett at the LTA as head of player development. A key appointment of Canadian chief executive Michael Downey, the Australian speaks with a velvet voice but wields a well- disguised iron fist. There could be no complaining about the efforts put in by Samantha Murray and Smethurst, two grafters whose struggles around the bleaker outposts of the circuit were rewarded with the financial bonanza of the £27,000 minimum i n prize- money that comes with a wildcard.
Not only are there such luxuries as chauffeur-driven transport at events like Wimbledon, their financial reward exceeds the total pot on offer at some of the tournaments in which they play.
The closest Murray has ever got to Court No 1 has been purely as a fan, or as a temporary employee of the All England Club seven years ago when she worked in the office handing out accreditation badges.
Now she was out there against the unforgiving figure of tournament, second favourite Maria Sharapova, whom, after a few close early games, she managed to detain for 58 minutes before succumbing 6-1, 6-0.
At the start of May it was the proud boast of Smethurst, a 23-year-old from Manchester, that he had won more professional matches in 2014 than any other player, even if they came very much on the lower tiers.
His reward on his Grand Slam debut was to face the gargantuan serve of 6ft 9in American No 1 John Isner, something he described as ‘ridiculous, he looks so casual it’s hard to tell what he is planning to do with it’.
Smethurst added: ‘I didn’t realise the crowd would get into it so much. I was overwhelmed by that. I’ve never had a crowd backing me like that before. That was a great experience. Maybe I was a bit too intense in the first set, that’s something I need to learn in best of five matches.’
He handled the occasion well early on and created three break points at 3-3. The third was saved with a 134mph ace which, as Nicolas Mahut — Isner’s opponent in the 70-68 marathon in 2010 — could tell him, is just how it goes sometimes.
Watson could yet be joined by another Brit in the second round after Tara Moore levelled late in the evening to finish at 4-6, 7-6 against the beaten 2010 f i nalist Vera Zvonareva.
The talented but under-achieving British No 6, faced with a player who has won only one match this year due to persistent shoulder injuries, fought back from 3-1 in the tiebreak to take it into a deciding set today.