NEW HAVEN, Connecticut – Saturday was an off-day for Great Britain’s Heather Watson. Watson fell in the qualifying of the New Haven Open to Czech Republic’s Petra Cetovska6-1, 6-1. “Yesterday I felt, a bit flat, I wasn’t moving and it just showed a bit more today,” explained Watson.

Despite the loss Watson reflected on her rise in the rankings and a breakthrough year. What has enabled her to move up – “gaining more experience and being really determined and really fighting and also I just really enjoy tennis,” said Watson. Watson has moved up from 588 in 2009 to 103 in the world as of last week.

Watson is ranked No. 3 among British women. “It’s good to have Anne (Anne Keothavong) and Bally (Elena Baltatcha) around to keep pushing me. When I see them do well, I want to do well as well. We’re all very competitive and that’s nice.”

Watson names one of her biggest achievements in her young career as winning the 2009 Girls Championship at US Open. “best day of my life, I was so happy,” noted Watson. She also lists winning the gold in the Commonwealth Youth Games for Guernsey and qualifying and winning a round at the French Open. “The week before I had an absolute disaster, I had match points and lost a match and I thought everything is going wrong with my life and then I had a really good week there (French Open).”

Watson also talked about her experience as a part of the WTA Xperia Hotshots – “we’ve gotten to experience so many cool things. It’s just helped build our fan base and I’ve had a lot of fun doing.”

So what are Watson’s goals for the year, “for the end of this year my goal, I set my goal at top 99, but my agent set it at top 75. I’m really trying to get to that top 75, I still believe I can get there.”

“I started very late on the WTA tour. Lots of girls start very young so I’m just going to keep working hard and be patient I can’t rush anything and hoping that the results take care of themselves.”

Watson will go back to Florida to train before heading to New York to play in the US Open.

Listen to the full Heather Watson Interview with Tennis Panorama News (MP3 file)

Karen Pestaina is the woman behind Tennis Panorama News. She freelances  for media outlets in and out of tennis and has worked for many a broadcast news entity. She’s a member of AFTRA, NABET, NABJ, WGA and the US Tennis Writers’  Association. She witnessed her first live tennis match as a young child at Forest Hills when Guillermo Vilas upset Jimmy Connors to win the 1977 US Open. This branded her as a Vilas fan for life. She’s covering the New Haven Open this week. Follow her on  the site’s twitter @GVTennisNews.