Heather Watson breezed into the second round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto with a comfortable straight-sets win over the American player, Irina Falconi.
The British women’s No1, who reached the main draw of the tournament with victory over Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova in the final round of qualifying, never looked in danger of an early exit and she wasted little time in posting a 6-1, 6-2 win in just over an hour on court.
The victory put to bed any fears of a repeat of her performance a week ago in Washington, when she dropped to a shock first-round defeat to American wildcard Louisa Chirico, a player ranked 128 in the world.
Watson, 23, is in the top half of the draw in Canada and could meet top seed and world No1 Serena Williams in the third round if she gets past Andrea Petkovic of Germany in her next outing.
Petkovic, seeded 16, came from a set down to defeat Francoise Abanda of Canada 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in her first round match while Williams also got off to a poor start, dropping the first set to Flavia Pennetta, before roaring back to claim a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory.
