Orchard are avid supporters and indeed reporters of Guernsey’s own tennis star Heather Watson who, now 18, is back in the UK for the summer having graduated from The Pendleton School in Florida earlier this month.
Now a full time pro, gone are Heather’s days of having to juggle school work, training and playing tennis competitively. In fact her father, Ian, tells us that Heather is one of the very few professional tennis players who has successfully managed to keep on top of both her studies and tennis coming out with top A grades in the process which is truly remarkable.
We know that the senior tennis pro circuit is going to be a really hard climb for Heather but one she is excited and extremely passionate about. We are equally excited about following Heather’s progress albeit from our Orchard offices in Bulwer Avenue, sadly not quite the same as from the Debenture Lounge at SW19 – although Pimms is available at both venues!
Heather started at the Edgbaston Priory in Birmingham this week at the AEGON Classic – the first of the grass court series. With a wild card into the first round she faced world number 78, Alla Kudryavtseva from Russia. Here, she put up a great fight but didn’t quite manage to finish it off, losing 6-4, 6-3.
Now in the first round of the doubles later on this afternoon (weather permitting!) she is playing with fellow Brit and great friend, Laura Robson. Again she seems to have had a tough draw, as they are up against first seeds L Huber and B Mattek-Sands (USA) but it will all be great experience for the youngsters.
Next week Heather will be heading down to AEGON International at Eastbourne before she takes part in the biggest event of her tennis career – the Grand Slam senior event at Wimbledon! Now with just 12 days to go we know that Heather has been awarded a Wild Card into the main draw which is fantastic news.
If you are sadly one of the majority who are unable to go to Wimbledon to support Heather personally, we hope that some or part of her match will be televised. However if it isn’t another way to follow Heather’s progress is online. You can log on to watch her live on court, a painful experience (due to the fact you can only see the score board flicking over before your eyes rather than the players actually playing tennis), but this is an immediate yet nail biting way of knowing how she is getting on.
If keen to follow Heather, the best websites to log on to are:
www.lta.org.uk
www.wimbledon.org
www.sonyericssonwtatour.com
Go for it Heather – Orchard, sponsors Sportingbet and everyone back here in Guernsey wishes you the very best of luck!
Posted by Di.