Heather Watson

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

RE: Heather Watson

wimdledont · Challenger level

Heather has been given a wildcard for Indian Wells...

www.wtatennis.com/news/article/5392225/title/hantuchova-among-indian-wells-wcs

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Good news :)

I see that article also mentions (prompted by Steven's email maybe?!) that this week is the first time since 1978 that there have been 3 Brits in WTA quarterfinals. In tennis terms that's several generations ago; hopefully this is not a flash in the pan but just the start of a sustained period of such upper echelons involvement :)

steven · Tennis legend

vohor wrote:
Good news :)

I see that article also mentions (prompted by Steven's email maybe?!) that this week is the first time since 1978 that there have been 3 Brits in WTA quarterfinals. In tennis terms that's several generations ago; hopefully this is not a flash in the pan but just the start of a sustained period of such upper echelons involvement :)

Kevin Fischer from the WTA replied to my tentative tweet about 1978 within a minute or two to confirm, so I think he/they must already have done the same kind of search as I (and ISF) had done by the time I tweeted. I was going to say coincidence but that is probably the wrong word, since it's a fairly obvious thing to wonder about - after all, someone had asked on here, prompting ISF's post, and someone else had asked on Twitter, prompting mine.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

We'll just have to put it down to "great minds thinking alike" then (albeit with a bit of prompting) smile

-- Edited by vohor on Friday 4th of March 2016 09:22:20 AM

Sim · County player

Heather has has appointed South African John-Laffnie de Jager as her new coach.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/sep/26/heather-watson-pulls-out-wuhan-open-tennis-dizzy-spells

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I didn't realise that Heather and Lloyd Glasspool were an 'item'.

And it can't be gossip, if it's in The Times, surely.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/meet-the-other-half-of-new-power-couple-of-british-tennis-52w66zxl6

Good luck to both of them !

the addict · Tennis legend

Oh it's been a little while now - saw something on twitter

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

The annual tennis silly season WTA popularity chart (ranked by number of player profile views on WTA.com) is dribbling in 10 each day this week.
Heather's popularity ranking has far outstripped that of her tennis this year; as she has done rather well and come in at #43.
That's ahead of the likes of Sloane, JJ, Petko and, erm, Poots.
No other Brit's have yet appeared, but one would hope we'd have at least one more entry somewhere in the higher echelons of this critically important ranking.

theemptyvessel · Club Coach

I noticed on twitter that Dan Evans has not been slow to pick up on the power couple story and is having some fun with it.

wimdledont · Challenger level

Heather is not, to my knowledge, injured; and she has played a dozen and some tennis matches so far in 2017, including singles and doubles at the Hopman and Fed Cups.

But only two singles matches, both at the Oz Open, in the last 4 months, since w/c 10.10.16. In a week or so, she loses 280 pointa from 2016, and will fall to around WR112, relying on injury absences to get direct GS entries.

Seems very complacent to me.

.

PaulM · Tennis legend

She has huge numbers of points to defend, with big scores in IW (35) and Miami (120) as well as her Monterrey title (280).

Unless she manages an unlikely repeat of those feats, she will be in qualies for Roland Garros and likely have to rely on a wild card for Wimbledon, which would be hugely disappointing.

She is down for Acapulco next week (currently still in qualies but she might sneak into the main draw). Would be good to get a couple of wins there.

That poor loss to Brady has really put her in bother unnecessarily.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Heather has been in danger of dropping out of the top 100 a couple of times and avoided it (notably this time last year by winning Monterrey) but she could do with picking up some wins fairly soon. If she plays like she did in Fed Cup then she will be fine, but it's a shame she hasn't played either last week or this week to carry on the momentum.

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

Well this is just a sign that her tennis is not in a good place and hasn't looked like being so for years now. Her occassional tournament wins, welcome as they are, come as surprise and baffling events more than anything else.

Spectator · All-time great

Recollecting the long wait to see a GB woman in the top 100 ... and the anticipation when we first thought one might get there ... and the years with few WTA-level match wins, and no tournament wins ... I rather like a year in which Ms Watson has won, among other things, a WTA tournament, some super Fed Cup matches, and Wimbledon mixed doubles ... even if there have been struggles along the way.

Point taken that she's got a lot of points to defend this Spring and that she has at time seemed to struggle with the new style of tennis adopted a few years ago. And point taken, too, that she is very up-and-down - as tony_orient notes, she always has been. But if you've just allowed for that and enjoyed the ride, there have been - and I hope will be - plenty of highs.