This Year, For the Olympics, It’s Good to be British

Written by: Staff on 25th July 2012

This Year, For the Olympics, It’s Good to be British

epa03288164 Heather Watson of Britain returns to Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland during their third round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 29 June 2012. EPA/GERRY PENNY |

Britain appears to be experiencing the benefits of being the Olympic host nation as Heather Watson gained a late entry in the Women’s Singles draw because of the enforced withdrawal of Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko.

Now Laura Robson, Watson’s British partner in the Women’s Doubles who came close to reaching her first WTA final in Palermo earlier this month, is the next in line to be promoted into the draw should any other competitor be forced to withdraw due to injury.

But there is no home bias in the decision and Bondarkenkos her replacement was chosen by an Olympic rule stating that those players that withdraw after midnight on July 20 are replaced by the next highest-ranked player already entered in the event.

Cynics might point out Britain certainly now have three, and possibly four players, in the singles draw even though none of the home competitors earned first-time qualification by right. All were the world’s top 68 on June 11.

The International Tennis Federation granted wild cards to both Anne Keothavong and Elena Baltacha, who were then the highest-ranked British women at world no.76 and no.91 respectively.

Watson, the 20 year-old from the Channel Island of Guernsey and a former U.S. Open junior champion, has earned her call-up by climbing the ladder to 67th position on the WTA rankings over the past six weeks. She reached the third round at Wimbledon, the best result by a British woman in a decade, and has since picked up a couple of hard-court wins in the United States. Demonstrating her delight on Twitter, Watson said: Yes it’s confirmed. . . I’m in the Olympic singles!!!”

Later Watson said: I got told the news on the court at the end of my training session at Wimbledon. I’m so pleased, I was jumping up and down with excitement when I found out. I’m really looking forward to competing for Great Britain in the Olympics and I’ll be giving it my best shot in both the singles and the doubles competitions.”

Bondarenko has not played a match of any note since last October and cited a right knee injury for her withdrawal. The 27 year-old from Kharkiv was ranked as high as world no.19 and was Australian Open doubles champion with her younger sister Kateryna in 2008.

Topics: 10sballs.com, Alona Bondarenko, British tennis news, Heather Watson, London Olympics, Sports, Tennis News, women tennis news