• WTA Tour

Watson's brave run ends in quarters

ESPN staff
January 6, 2011
Heather Watson is poised to climb into the world's top 150 next week © Getty Images
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Heather Watson's stirring adventure at the Auckland Classic was finally ended at the quarter-final stage by Shuai Peng.

British No. 3 Watson, playing in the last eight of a WTA tournament for the first time, went down 6-4 7-5.

The 18-year-old appeared to run out of steam against Peng, winning just 51% of points on serve as her game unravelled. Despite the disappointment, she is poised to climb into the world's top 150 next week.

Elsewhere, Maria Sharapova's preparations for the Australian Open were disrupted as she succumbed to a shock 6-2 7-5 defeat to Greta Arn. The Russian refused to read too much into the defeat, despite producing 30 unforced errors.

"I started off really slow, got down two breaks and I think she gained a tremendous amount of confidence from that," Sharapova said.

"I had my chances in the second set but I didn't play the same way I had played to get there. Obviously I would have loved to play a few more here and be the winner, but that's the way it goes. You look forward to the next one."

Arn now plays Julia Goerges, who defeated Kateryna Bondarenko 5-7 6-2 6-2. In the other semi, Peng takes on defending champion Yanina Wickmayer, conqueror of Simona Halep.

At the Brisbane International, fourth seed Marion Bartoli destroyed Barbora Zahlavova Strycov's second serve, winning 12 of 17 points, on her way to a commanding 6-2 6-1 victory. She now faces Andrea Petkovic, while in the other semi Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will face Petra Kvitova.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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