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Ros Satar
Heather Watson in the second round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, WTA San Jose 2018
Heather Watson in the second round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, WTA San Jose 2018 | Anita Stahl

WTA Quebec City 2018 | Heather Watson coasts past Rebecca Marino for semi-final spot

Ros Satar
Tennis

By Ros Satar

  • Heather Watson def. Rebecca Marino [WC] 6-3 6-4
  • Faces Pauline Parmentier next, Watson leads head to head 1-0
  • Reaches a second semi-final this season after starting the year with a run in Hobart
QUEBEC, CANADA – Heather Watson halted home crowd favourite Rebecca Marino with a solid straight sets win to book her place in the last four in Quebec City.

 

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Heather Watson def. Rebecca Marino [WC] 6-3 6-4

Heather Watson continued a great run of form as she coasted past home crowd favourite Rebecca Marino to book her spot in the semi-finals of the Coupe Banque Nationale in Quebec City.

Watson, who is now the British No. 3 behind Johanna Konta and Katie Boulter, started aggressively to break for a 2-0 lead, but Marino has a strong presence and easy power, so pegged the Brit back immediately. Watson kept her head, breaking once more and forced the Canadian to save two set points before finally grabbing the lead.

Marino, whose inspiring story has made her a firm fan favourite after publicly acknowledging her struggles with her own mental health and welfare, was far more competitive in the second set, with just one break point chance falling to the Guernsey girl before she wrapped up another victory.

 

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Watson v Pauline Parmentier [8] | H2H: Watson leads 1-0

Facing Pauline Parmentier next, Watson’s experience against Marino ought to stand her in good stead as she faces an aggressive baseliner with a decent serve and forehand in her armoury. Her backhand side has always been her weak spot, and if Watson can move her around the court, she could burn her with errors that has a tendency to leak from the backhand and her volleys, which can also be weak.

Watson does have the ability to revert from a more aggressive style she adopted to get leeway against the more powerful players. It can result in a high error count for the Brit, but she can more than make up for that with variety and agility around the court.

What we need to hope for is that this run of back to back wins, which is frankly her best in a main draw since the start of the season, starts to instil a bit more confidence in her as she looks to chase down Boulter to regain her No. 2 spot.

Parmentier by contrast did not start her season that well when compared with Watson, but had far more consistency from the spring, but is still struggling with a negative W/L record for the year. It might sound like miniscule hooks to hang our hat on, but Watson needs to look at any and all angles to exploit to have the confidence to head out there and book her place in the final.

Prediction: Watson in three sets.

Watson & Parmentier are scheduled on Court Banque Nationale not before 1:30pm (6:30pm BST).

 

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