Heather Watson holds her nerve to beat Alison Riske and reach Hobart final

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/16/heather-watson-alison-riske-hobart-final

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The British No1 Heather Watson battled the elements and her nerves to reach the final of the Hobart International on Friday.

In a match played in strong winds and interrupted six times by rain, Watson defeated her American opponent, Alison Riske, 6-3, 7-5 to continue her impressive preparation for next week’s Australian Open.

The world No49 recovered from 3-1 down in the opening set to win the next five games in succession and also came back from the same deficit in the second. Leading 5-4, Watson let her first two match points slip but had just set up a third when heavy rain forced the players from the court once again.

That led to a delay of an hour and it was hardly surprising that Watson served a double fault when play eventually resumed and followed that by losing the next two points and her serve.

However, the 22-year-old promptly broke Riske’s serve to lead 6-5 and this time served out for a place in Saturday’s final, where she will face another American in Madison Brengle. Brengle defeated Japan’s Kurumi Nara 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the other semi-final.

“I’m very happy to finally get through today – it was tough,” said Watson. “It’s definitely not great conditions to play tennis and it was never going to be a very pretty match. I think the goal for Alison and me today was just to get the ball in and not go for free points.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence from these wins, not just from that but how I’m playing. I really believe in my game at the moment and it’s showing in my tennis.”