Heather Watson leads British charge at Shrewsbury Club

Watson impressed the home crowd at The Shrewsbury Club’s DMOS People Arena by securing an excellent 6-1, 6-1 victory yesterday. Schmiedlova, from Slovakia, recently enjoyed a fine run at the Olympics in Paris, eventually losing to world number one Iga Swiatek in the bronze medal match at Roland Garros.

But Watson, the British number five, quickly took control of the first round contest and was happy with her performance.

“I’m very pleased,” said Watson, a regular member of Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team. “She’s such a tough player. She played for a medal at the Olympics just a few months ago, so I knew I had to play really well today.

“But I think the fact that I had such a tough draw first round, it forced me to really bring my A game from the start, and from going 40-15 down in that first game, I just felt like I caught fire.

“I’ve been putting in a lot of work the last few weeks. It’s been nice to be home and recharge the batteries, and I was very happy with my performance today, especially against such a good player and also she’s a fighter.”

This is not the first time that Watson has played at The Shrewsbury Club. She reached the final of the Sundorne Road venue’s 2011 tournament, when she lost to Mona Barthel, who is also playing in this week’s event.

“It’s really good to be back,” she added. “I absolutely love playing at home. I think my results and my tennis always show that, so I’m really glad I got the opportunity again this week.”

Watson was not the day’s only British winner as Emily Appleton, having emerged from the qualifying rounds, won her third match in as many days with a 6-4, 7-6 victory over Czech player Aneta Laboutkova. Two of the British players to receive main draw wild cards made first round exits after being handed tough draws against seeded players.

French fourth seed Chloe Paquet got the better of Amelia Rajecki 6-4, 6-2, while Ukrainian Daria Snigur, seeded six this week, was a 6-0, 6-1 winner against Ella McDonald.

Spanish top seed Nuria Parrizas-Diaz, ranked 80 in the world, made an early exit after losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to Swiss player Simona Waltert. Seventh seed Elsa Jacquemot was another seeded player to be knocked out in round one after losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to Oksana Selekhmeteva.

Eight more British players will feature in the first round today, including two battle of the Brits clashes. Sonay Kartal, the third seed, faces Hannah Klugman, the 15-year-old who enjoyed a fine run to the quarter-finals in Shrewsbury last year, while it’s Ranah Akua Stoiber against Mingge Xu.

Amarni Banks, last year’s runner-up, takes on French player Kristina Mladenovic, who was ranked as high as 10 in the world earlier in her career.

Jodie Burrage, Beth Grey and Hephzibah Oluwadare, through to the main draw as a lucky loser after defeat in the second qualifying round, are also playing.

Today’s first round action, with both singles and doubles matches scheduled, starts at 10am, with admission for spectators to watch the matches from court-side stands £17.50