Watson Advances To Face Radwanska

Heather Watson continued her fine form in 2014 with another victory over 16-year-old tennis prodigy Belinda Bencic.

Bencic, already in the top 150 players in the world despite her age, was ultimately no match for a resurgent Heather Watson, who ground out a 7-5 6-4 victory to progress to the second round of the BNP Paribas Open as Indian Wells.

Her victory sets up a second round clash with Agnieszka Radwanska who has convincingly beaten her on two previous occasions. However Watson was sure her improving form and tactical awareness would make this match more competitive, telling the BBC, "I'm not going to give away my tactics, but i'm not going to go in playing the same way I did the other two times."

Watson came through two round of qualifying to reach the main draw at Indian Wells defeating 86th seed Virginie Razzano and 103rd seed Teliana Pereira in comfortable straight sets to prove her current ranking of 134th does not justify her quality.

Elsewhere it was disappointment for James Ward who fell in the final round of qualifying to the veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2 6-3, failing to capitalise on a number of chances to break the Frenchman.

With Daniel Cox and Johanna Konta also failing to make it through qualifying, this leaves just Heather Watson and Andy Murray left in the main draw, both competing in the second round later this week.

Murray will play either Lukas Rosol or qualifier Dusan Lajovic courtesy of a bye into the second round, as he seeks to win his first title of 2014 after a slow start to the year.

Despite having only two Brits in the singles, representation in the doubles is more impressive, with no less than four pairs including British players in the Mens draw. Andy Murray will play alongside Wimbledon 2012 Men's Double champion Jonathan Marray as they take on Juan Monaco and Gael Monfils in the opening round.

Elsewhere Dominic Inglot and Treat Huey will play Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi whilst Andy's brother Jamie will partner John Peers as they take on Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Finally Ross Hutchins continues his comeback after battling caner last year as he and partner Colin Fleming take on Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.

Published on SEaT Capital.