Heather Watson stormed back from the brink of defeat to progress to the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
Brit storms back after being 5-0 down in final set
Heather Watson stormed back from the brink of defeat to progress to the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
The British number four, playing on a wild card, was 5-0 down to Sorana Cirstea in the final set of her opener.
But, saving two match points in the process, she launched an inspired fightback to win 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7/4) to set up a meeting with 27th seed Lucie Safarova.
Watson started brightly enough, winning the opening set thanks to a solitary break of the Romanian's serve.
However, world number 48 Cirstea, ranked 81 places higher, hit back in the second and then appeared to be strolling away with the decider when she broke Watson three times on the spin.
But the chances to complete victory soon began to slip by as Cirstea's serve deserted her.
Memorable
She missed two match points when serving at 5-4 and although she managed to stop the rot and force a tie-break, Watson's confidence had returned and she closed out a memorable win.
There was not such good news for British number one Elena Baltacha, who fell at the first hurdle.
Baltacha went down 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 6-2 to China's Shuai Zhang in what was a two hour and 44 minute battle.
Zhang goes through to meet Serena Williams in round two.
In the men's event, British number two James Ward failed to progress to the main draw, losing 6-3 6-3 to Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the final round of qualifying.
