Heather Watson underlined the changing of the guard in British women's tennis at the Mercury Insurance Open in California.
New British No.1 records back-to-back wins
Heather Watson underlined the changing of the guard in British women's tennis at the Mercury Insurance Open in California on Tuesday.
While the new British No.1 posted an impressive 6-3 6-3 win over Eleni Daniilidou in Carlsbad, the woman she replaced at the top of the GB rankings, Anne Keothavong, bowed out in the first round.
Watson held serve throughout her contest against the former world number 14, and broke her Greek opponent three times in total - twice in the first set and one in the second.
She will now take on Chan Yung-Jan, who progressed after seventh seed Yanina Wickmayer retired hurt.
Earlier, Keothavong was beaten 6-4 6-0 by Marina Erakovic - ironically a player who teamed up with Watson to win a doubles title last week.
Things started well enough for the Briton as she claimed an early break of serve but her New Zealand opponent, ranked 29 places higher, fought back and once she had taken the opening set there was no stopping Erakovic.
Keothavong, who got only 48 per cent of her first serves into play and finished with 10 double faults, will now have to wait at least another week to overhaul Watson in the rankings.
Watson later teamed up with Slovakian Janette Husarova in the first round of the doubles competition, and the pair posted a 6-4 7-5 victory over fourth seeds Natalie Grandin and Vladimira Uhlirova.
Meanwhile fifth-seed Christina McHale warmed up for the Olympics with a 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 triumph over Jarmila Gajdosova, while eighth seed Chanelle Scheepers saw off Coco Vandeweghe 6-2 7-6 (7/4).
There were also first-round wins for Melinda Czink, Vania King and Melanie Oudin.
