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Watson knocks out seed in AEGON Classic

Heather Watson held her nerve on the big points © Getty Images

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Heather Watson showed she has what it takes to produce her best tennis at the critical moments as she saw off the seeded Chanelle Scheepers in the first round of the AEGON Classic on Monday.

Signalling the start of the grass-court season, Watson began her Wimbledon preparations in style, defeating 15th seed Scheepers 6-3 7-5. World No. 93 Watson has her eye on Elena Baltacha's British No. 1 ranking and, having qualified for the French Open two weeks ago, she can take further steps over the coming weeks.

The youngster's serve certainly needs strengthening as she puts her game together, but when it came to the decisive moments of each sets, it was Watson who came out on top of Scheepers, saving six of nine break points.

Crucially, she never allowed her South African rival to settle on her own serve, winning 12 of 17 points on second serve, and victory was wrapped up in under an hour-and-a-half.

Fellow Brit Samantha Murray, no relation of Andy, could not follow in Watson's footsteps, losing 7-5 6-1 to Anna Tatishvili. Murray saved 13 break points but was still broken on six occasions.

Emily Webley-Smith, another British wildcard, also suffered a first-round exit, losing 6-4 6-3 to 14th seed Magdalena Rybarikova. Webley-Smith never gave herself a fighting chance as she continuously failed to find the mark with her first serve, exiting after 72 minutes.

Melanie South became a third British casualty, losing 6-4 6-1 to 13th seed Rebecca Marino, while No. 10 seed Bojana Jovanovski was one of the biggest first-day departees, exiting 6-1 5-7 6-4 to Sarah Gronert.

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