The stories in British tennis have been all too familiar over the past couple of decades – unfulfilled talent, near misses at the majors, juniors failing to deliver on over-generous financial investment – which makes the revival of 2012 so unexpected, so remarkable, so plain brilliant.
In the space of three and a half months:
•Andy Murray has won the US Open, his first Grand Slam and Olympic Gold
•Laura Robson has made her first WTA final, losing to Su-Wei Hsieh at the Guangzhou Open, reached the last 16 of the US Open, and won an Olympic silver medal in the mixed doubles with Murray
•Now Heather Watson has become the first British woman in 24 years to win a top-level tour singles title.
•And don’t forget Wimbledon doubles champion Jonny Marray, who won the Wimbledon’s men’s doubles title with Frederik Nielsen. He started all this!
Today we celebrate the achievement of Heather Watson, the 20-year-old from Guernsey, who beat Chang Kai-chen in the final of the Japan Open in Osaka.
Her opponent may have been lower ranked and she didn’t have to beat the best in the world – these are indisputable facts – but that matters not one jot to the ever-smiling Watson. This was all about getting the job done and getting that first top-level trophy. Hopefully the first of many.
Chang had beaten the top-seed, former US Open Champion Sam Stosur, in the semis so deserved her tilt at the title.
Anyone cruel enough to to downgrade the achievement of such a hard-working and single-minded athlete on the basis of the opposition, should do so with due consideration of the mental challenge Watson overcame at crucial periods in her first final.
The disappointment of failing to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set was potentially crushing. Would that be chance over? When it went one-set all, one feared for Heather in the same way we feared for Andy when the New York final went two-all.
She slipped behind a break in the decider and then, 5-4 down, was a single point from defeat. Anyone who has to face a total of four championship points and then, minutes later, finds the trophy in their hands, deserves enormous praise.
This is a fantastic end to a year which started so badly for Watson.
Going into the Miami event this year, she was despondent. She knew she’d come back from injury too soon at the start of the season and nothing seemed to be going right on the court.
Then, in a startling first-round match, she recovered from 5-0 down final set to beat Sorana Cirstea, the Romanian, and things started moving once more.
Injury, despondency, poor form; such is life on the pro circuit. It’s all about how players respond and learn. Do they want to respond? Do they know how? Watson has answered both questions unequivocally.
Out on tour, one tournament after another, there is little time to breathe and take stock with the learning curve so steep it’s hardly surprising some fail to get close to the summit.
