Anyone who witnessed the almost unbearable drama of Heather Watson coming within two points of beating Serena Williams at Wimbledon last year would struggle to recognise her as the same player who went out of the US Open in straight sets here on day two to Richel Hogenkamp, a 24-year-old Dutch qualifier ranked 135 in the world.
There were extenuating circumstances. Watson’s back looked to give up on her and Hogenkamp raised her game to a level she had rarely hit before in her career to win 6-2, 7-5. This was her first win in the main draw of a big tournament.
The biggest win of her career, by far, was over the former slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in more than four hours in a Fed Cup match this year, the longest in the history of the competition. If that was an earthquake, this was at least an earth tremor.
Watson was a break down within 10 minutes on the wide open Court Four on another hot, slow-wind day, the thermometer hitting 26C (80F) before noon, and humidity rising to 59%. This is their workplace, but it is not an easy environment.
It was getting increasingly grim for Watson; within 20 minutes she trailed 1-4, unable to get her serve clicking and hitting one sloppy forehand after another. When Hogenkamp went 5-2 up, Watson went to her chair on the changeover and dropped her head into her hands. The Guernsey player thereafter could not get going in attack, hitting a single winner in the first set, and seemed at a loss to handle the all-round competence of Hogenkamp.
As the sun beat relentlessly on their heads, Watson took a long while at the end of the first set sitting under an umbrella held over her by a patient ballkid, as Hogenkamp idled her time away nearby with an ice pack on her head: elite tennis at its most brutal.
With anxious staff hovering, Watson spoke at length with two medical attendants, and seemed to indicate she was having trouble moving her torso. The tears began to flow as they counselled her, and she asked to lie down on court as the physio manipulated her left side.
After about 10 minutes, Watson went to the service line to start the second set. The best rally of the match ensued, as she chased down one clever angled shot after another, before finishing the point with one of her own, for 15-all. Whatever ailed her seemed to have passed. It was an illusion.
Hogenkamp let her off the hook on break point and Watson held, grateful for any favours. The irony was the Dutch player, who showed no signs of distress, had at this point hit twice as many unforced errors as her stricken foe, and twice as many winners – so clearly was playing with freedom.
Hogenkamp had lost only two points on her first serve after just under an hour of stop-start tennis. Watson was finding it tough to get a break. The British player had spoken earlier of the advantage of coming into the main draw through the qualifying tournament, and certainly Hogenkamp was moving with confidence, sure in the shot and, despite her inexperience at the highest level, playing without fear.
Watson’s movement – normally snappy and athletic – was sluggish by comparison. Every game since she had held serve at the start of the match, she found herself in a dogfight of her own making just to hold, and she was broken again in the third game. She doubled up in distress on her chair again at the changeover.
Watson had held just twice in the match and had to red-line through deuce to get to 2-3. She then seemed to get a burst of energy from nowhere and was grateful for a Hogenkamp double-fault to gift her the break and parity in the sixth game. However, a double fault and a couple of sloppy errors handed the break back.
This was slow, sweaty torture for Watson, but she broke back immediately when her forehand clipped the net and trickled over.
True to script, Watson served a double fault and an ace to hold, and the pressure shifted across the net for the first time in the match as Hogenkamp stepped up to stay in the set. She served just her second ace of the match for deuce, then Watson failed to cash in on a weak second serve and the chance passed.
Watson’s suspect back seized up again in the 11th game, at precisely the wrong moment of her brief fightback. Clearly in pain, with her serve barely of club-player speed, she handed Hogenkamp three break points, two of which the Dutch player squandered before going 6-5 up in what turned out to be the longest game of the match.
Hogenkamp could hardly believe it when Watson did not chase down a regulation return in midcourt, and was relieved when the British player put her final forehand long.
Watson was wrecked, physically and spiritually, as she dragged herself off court in tears, and on to the treatment table.
