Heather Watson beaten in straight sets by Simona Halep in Miami
Tuesday 29 March 2016 00:17, UK
British No 2 Heather Watson crashed out of the Miami Open after a straight-sets defeat to Simona Halep.
The 2014 French Open finalist Halep clinched victory in the last 16 in Florida 6-3 6-4 despite suffering a scare early on from the Brit.
Watson broke Halep in her first two service games and led 3-1 in the opening set before Halep rattled off five straight games to take the first set 6-3.
Watson, currently ranked 69th in the world, was then broken again in the fifth game of the second set before breaking back to make it 3-3.
But yet another break put Halep 4-3 up before the pair held serve to give the Romanian the chance to serve for the match.
The world No 5 then wrapped up the win with a love service game to advance into the quarter-finals where she will play Swiss star Timea Bacsinszky after she knocked out Agnieszka Radwanska 2-6 6-4 6-2.
Watson said she had hurt her leg during the match, which didn't help her cause.
She said: "I felt fine going into this match but then tweaked it again and became overly aggressive going for stuff you shouldn't usually go for playing against Halep.
"I ended up paying the price, missed a few too many and was pretty inconsistent."
