• Tennis

Watson suffers early exit at the Wuhan Open

ESPN staff
September 22, 2014
Watson is without a singles win since early August © Getty Images
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Heather Watson suffered her fourth consecutive first-round defeat on Sunday night, losing in straight sets to Sara Errani at the Wuhan Open.

Watson, who avoided qualification for the tournament thanks to the retirement of China's No.1 Li Na, was broken six times throughout the match, managing to get just 46% of her first serves in.

The first set was edged by Errani before Watson opened up a promising 4-0 lead in the second. But the Briton failed to capitalise, losing six consecutive games and allowing Errani to seal a 7-5 6-4 win in the pair's first meeting.

Despite breaking back into the world's top 50 in August, Watson has now suffered a run of first-round defeats, being beaten by Shuai Zhang at Cincinnati, Sorana Cirstea at the US Open and American qualifier Nicole Gibbs at the Korea Open last week.

Watson replaced Laura Robson as Britain's No.1 in June and is currently ranked No.47 in the world but her last win was back in early August against Dominika Cibulkova at Montreal.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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