Heather Watson fights into Australian Open third round
17th January 2013
British No.1 Heather Watson fought valiantly to come back from a set down to defeat Ksenia Pervak in the second round of the Australian Open.
Watson, 20, saved three match points in the second set tie-break against the Kazakh and battled back in Melbourne Park to come through 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 in just over three hours.
Speaking after her match Watson said: "It was tough. I didn't start great. When I got to the tiebreak; I didn't have a great tiebreak. 6-3 down. So I thought, you know what? She's going to have to win it; I'm not going to give it away.
So I just made sure I made every single ball, and then suddenly it's my set point. I'm able to take that set. I mean, the crowd was just unbelievable. I think they really helped today."
In her third round encounter, the British world No.50 plays Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska. The pair have met once before at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships where the world No.4 was victorious with a 6-0, 6-2 win.
"She's a very different player to most of the girls" said Watson about her next opponent. "She's consistent, got great feel, so it's going to be another physical match. I've played her before, so I've got that feeling. I think the first time I played her I just went guns blazing, didn't know what to do. Just went for way too much. This time I'm coming in a different player, and I'm going to approach it differently."
Doubles
British doubles duo Colin Fleming & Jamie Murray began their Australian Open campaign against Michael Kohlmann & Jarkko Nieminen narrowly missing out 7-5, 7-5. Laura Robson and Hungarian partner Timea Babos were also defeated in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova & Lucie Safarova.
Schedule of Play – Thursday 17th January
Andy Murray v Joao Sousa – second on Hisense Arena
Laura Robson v Petra Kvitova – second on Rod Laver Arena
Heather Watson & Marina Erakovic (NZL) v Anna-Lena Groenefeld & Kveta Peschke – first on Court 11
Jamie Delgado & Ken Skupski v Tomasz Bednarek & Jerzy Janowicz – second on Court 11
Jonny Marray & Andre Sa (BRA) v Lukas Lacko & Igor Zelenay – third on Court 13
Dominic Inglot & Treat Huey (PHI) v Max Mirnyi & Horia Tecau – first on Court 22