isportAndy Murray’s countrywoman, Heather Watson, has been defeated by Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland in the first round of the French Open. Voegele won the match in three sets by 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Watson was Britain’s last hope in this competition after the defeat of Laura Robson and Elena Baltacha in the first round. She fought hard against her Swiss opponent, but, her effort didn’t prove to be good enough at the end.
This was the comeback tournament for Watson. She had been out of action since the last 2 months because of illness. She was short of match practice and that was evident in her performance.
In the opening set, neither of the two players got a breakthrough in the first 4 games and the scores were levelled at 2-2.
Voegele earned a couple of breakpoints in the 5th game. She missed out on the first one, but, cashed on the next one to sneak a breakthrough and get ahead by 3-2.
Watson didn’t manage to break back after that. Voegele won her next 3 service games and sealed the set by 6-4.
Watson’s start was not that impressive in the second set either. She dished up three breakpoints to her opponent in the first game. However, she managed to save all of them and ended up holding her serve.
The 21 years old Brit broke Voegele’s serve in the second game to increase her lead to 2-0, but, she couldn’t capitalize on that lead. She was broken back in the 3rd game and a serve hold for Voegele in the next game equalized the scores.
After that, the Swiss player seemed to lose her shape all of a sudden. Some extremely poor shots started coming off her racquet and she lost the next 4 games in a row to lose the set.
However, in the decider, Voegele looked focussed again. She broke Watson’s serve in the very first game and then, she held her serve in the 2nd game to take a lead of 2-0. She maintained that lead till the end of the contest and sealed the decider by 6-4 to move into the second round.