BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 12, 2022

Heather Watson

Emirates Arena

Team Great Britain

Press Conference

S. SANDERS/H. Watson

6-4, 7-6

Team Australia - 1

Team Great Britain - 0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Heather, obviously it didn't go your way, but can you just give us your thoughts for the match and playing an occasion like this?

HEATHER WATSON: I really enjoyed being out there on court today again. I don't feel like I played as well as I did in the first match, felt a bit heavier today, missed a lot more first serves, especially the T serve on the deuce.

Serving against Storm is super important. She has great returns, plays super aggressive.

I also thought she served really well, really smart, changed it up a lot, threw in a lot of different paces, spins. And I struggled with that, because usually my returning is one of the strengths in my game, so I thought she did a good job of that.

I'm really disappointed that I wasn't able to get the result that I wanted today for the team, but I gave it my best. It was still a good match.

Q. Was there a sense where you got out of that game at 4-All in the second, I think it was about a 12-minute game, four breakpoints, did you maybe sense that you'd turned the tide there possibly?

HEATHER WATSON: Yeah, I really felt that if I just kept pushing, she might -- because when we started the second set, she started slow. I had my chances to go 3-Love up. She was limping a bit. But then she brought it back that game and was absolutely fine.

So I was trying to, either way, to just try my best to get it to a third to see how she reacted physically to that, because I know she's played a lot of tennis.

But I had my chances. I mean, in the first set, most games were deuce advantage. We both had game points in almost every game. There wasn't much in it. Just wasn't able to convert today.

Q. Did it feel like a bit of a different situation to Thursday? Seemed like maybe you couldn't swing as freely.

HEATHER WATSON: No, I didn't think it was that. I think I just didn't feel as fresh as I did then. It's very different playing at 10:00 a.m. and when we have been having late starts. I mean, that's no -- I'm just saying I felt different today. It's no excuse.

Yeah, and I think that showed in my serve. I wasn't getting up on it enough and missing a lot in the net.