Watson enjoys more French success

Heather Watson has reached the second round of the French Open for the second successive year with a hugely impressive 6-2 6-4 victory over Russian Elena Vesnina.

The 20-year-old has had an up and down year in terms of form and injuries, but Roland Garros is clearly a venue that suits her and she will now play either 25th seed Julia Goerges or Lucie Hradecka

Last year Watson became the first British woman for 28 years to qualify in the French capital before going on to reach the second round - ending another long wait since Clare Wood's first-round win in 1994.

She did not drop a set in qualifying this time around and won her last match against Anna Floris on Friday for the loss of only one game.

Her only previous meeting with Vesnina also came on clay two years ago, which the Russian won in two close sets, but Watson was well on top on this occasion and broke serve twice to take the opener, helped by a double fault from her opponent on set point.

Vesnina, who reached the final of the WTA Tour event in Budapest a month ago, renewed her efforts at the start of the second and got her reward with a break of serve in the third game.

But Watson hit back straight away, levelling at 2-2 with a lovely backhand winner and then breaking again to move within two games of victory.

The Guernsey player was making a few more errors than she had in the opening set and she allowed Vesnina to level at 4-4 but she piled the pressure on when the world number 83 served to stay in the match and took her first match point for a notable win.

Watson said: "I'm very happy. I haven't had the best year so far. Then suddenly in Miami I started to play a lot better and got my two biggest wins (over Sorana Cirstea and Lucie Safarova).

"So I've just carried on working hard. I knew I had a lot of points here to defend, but I just didn't want to focus on that, just take each round at a time. That's what I've done. I've ended up playing really well."