• Miami Masters

Injury wrecks Watson's Miami hopes

Heather Watson shows her frustration as she walks off the court after her straight sets defeat against Virginie Razzano © Getty Images

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Heather Watson says her first-round Miami Masters loss was tough to take after injury hampered her chances in the tournament for the second year in a row.

The British No.2 suffered a shoulder injury that forced her to serve underarm as she was knocked out 6-4 6-0 by France's Virginie Razzano.

Explaining her injury, Watson said: "I woke up in the morning a few days ago and I couldn't move my shoulder. The physio said my first rib had moved up and my shoulder had gone into spasm. So I haven't served for three days and I could only train for half an hour a day

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"I hit about 25 percent underarm serves, I wasn't very good at them. It's a big tournament so I wanted to go out there and fight all the way through to the end but I couldn't play, not even 50 percent, so it was tough.

"I feel like I've been playing so well, I've been winning so many matches, but when you're a level down you don't get rewarded for it, so just winning one match here can equal winning a tournament somewhere else."

Watson was diagnosed with glandular fever after being knocked out of last year's tournament in Miami, with the illness ruining the rest of her season. Asked whether she would overcome her shoulder injury soon, Watson said: "I hope so but it's going slowly."

Elsewhere, America's Christina McHale, Lauren Davis and Vania King all progressed on Wednesday.

Davis won 6-2 6-3 against Shuai Zhang of China to set up a second round meeting with No.12 seed Ana Ivanovic. McHale defeated Jie Zheng of China 6-4 6-2, while King saw off Spain's Estrella Cabeza Candela 6-0 6-0. Croatia's Donna Vekic overcame Japan's 43-year-old Kimiko Date-Krum 7-6 (2) 6-2.

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