When they pick the names out of the hat on Friday morning, Heather Watson’s mantra can be summed up in three words: Anybody But Serena. She is probably not alone in hoping to avoid the best player in the world when the draw for Wimbledon is made but it is not just a lack of masochism that informs Watson’s line of thinking, bearing in mind how hard it is for her to dodge questions about that manic Friday evening when she came within two points of beating the world No1 in front of a frenzied Centre Court crowd.
Watson is understandably sick of talking about her gut-wrenching 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 defeat to Serena Williams in the third round of Wimbledon last year. A performance of staggering heart and quality earned her cult hero status and compelled Andy Murray to tweet: “Retweet if @HeatherWatson92 just made you feel really effing proud! Favourite if she made you feel really effing proud!” Effing proud: 26,767. Really effing proud: 41,120.
A year later, however, Watson has not kicked on in the way that many anticipated after she gave Williams the fright of her life. The world No50, who has still not been past the third round of a grand slam, has underwhelmed in 2016 and her preparations for Wimbledon have not been ideal.
The 24-year-old pulled out of the doubles in the Aegon International in Eastbourne on Wednesday morning, citing the abdominal strain that has hampered her since her first-round defeat to Magdalena Rybarikova in Nottingham, having already lost in the first round of the singles to Elena Vesnina, the world No53. She also lost in the second round of the Aegon Classic in Birmingham to Barbora Strycova last week.
Watson admitted that she was lethargic in her 6-2, 6-3 defeat to Vesnina, a consequence she attributed to the frustration of a rainy week in Birmingham. She faced the Russian at the end of another day of bad weather, leggy, edgy and badly out of form. “After last week in Birmingham, waiting 10 hours a day for the rain to stop, it probably caught up with me here,” she says.
Watson found herself watching episode after episode of Love Island last week, leaving her restless and impatient. As Jo Durie points out, however, dealing with weather delays is part of the job.
“Strange, I think, her attitude on court,” Durie, the former British No1, says. “And I know it has been raining and everyone’s hated the rain. It has been Paris, Nottingham, Birmingham, coming into this there’s been a lot of rain around. You’ve just got to handle it a bit better, because there are so many chances. Especially for a Brit. You’ve got the crowd with you. She’s a good grass-court player. She just needs to get her head straight when she goes into Wimbledon.”
The problem for Watson is that the most memorable match of her career by a long stretch ended in defeat, explaining why she is so reluctant to gush about playing Williams. She does get goosebumps when she thinks about the wild atmosphere that day, how her skilled tennis had the normally genteel denizens of Centre Court on their feet, pumping their fists, bellowing their support for her. But Watson insists that letting a double break in the third set slip out of her grasp before failing to serve it out when she led 5-4 does not occupy her thoughts.
“That match against Serena does seem like old news,” the British No2 says. “I don’t think people find it very interesting any more, to be honest. Do people really find it interesting?” Told that they really do, Watson admits that is up to her to create some new memories. “I don’t hold any affection for that kind of match because I didn’t win, so who cares?” she says. “Admittedly, it was super-exciting, probably a great match to watch, and that’s the best support I’ve ever had from the crowd.
“It felt like a football stadium, which I would like to experience more often if I’m honest, and afterwards I had people telling me they had taken up playing tennis because they were hooked by it. I understand that people found it exciting, and I don’t want to take anything away from it, but I’ve got nothing more to say about it because it’s gone and I didn’t win.”
The solution? Less Love Island, more Mad Men. To quote Don Draper, if you don’t like what’s being said, then change the conversation.
