HEATHER Watson has claimed her fourth career WTA Tour title in Acapulco after downing Canadian teenager, Leylah Fernandez in the Mexican Open final. With the top five seeds out in the first round, and Watson the sole surviving seed by the semis, the Brit showed her mettle to defeat a couple of in-form teenagers and stars of the future in victory over China’s Wang Xiyu and then Fernandez.

The final lasted two hours and 46 minutes, with Watson narrowly missing out on a straight sets win, dropping the second set tiebreaker 10-8, before rolling home in the third to record a 6-4 6-7 6-1 victory. Watson was impressive on serve, producing six aces and winning 79.1 per cent of her first serve points despite her efficiency being a low 59.8 per cent. It was her second serve points that Fernandez took advantage of, with the 17-year-old Canadian winning 57.8 per cent of those points, and broke twice. Luckily for Watson, she broke five times, though three of those came in the final set, winning 55.1 per cent of the total points for the match.

It was her first serve that troubled the Canadian, and was ultimately the difference in the end. While it was Fernandez’s maiden WTA Tour final, Watson had been in four prior finals, winning three of them, but none since 2016. Ranked 69th heading into the tournament, Watson’s victory saw her gain 280 points and move 20 spots up into the top 50. Edging closer to her career-high of 38th in the world, Watson looks to build on the performance, while for Fernandez, her massive boost of 64 ranking places up to 126th will be a huge help in qualifying for other tournaments automatically.