Watson compounds her ranking joy with victory

Watson, who climbed into the world’s top 100 on the back of her run to the second round of the French Open, eased to a 6-3 7-5 win to send her South African opponent packing.

The 19-year-old will face Misaki Doi or Edina Gallovits-Hall in round two.

The news was less encouraging for Watson’s compatriots, however, with Melanie South, Emily Webley-Smith and Samantha Murray all falling at the first hurdle today.

Bojana Jovanovski was one of two other seeded players to crash out, the 10th seed from Serbia, slipping to a 6-1 5-7 6-4 defeat to German qualifier Sara Gronert.

There was also a notable first-round exit for Kimiko Date-Krumm, the Japanese 12th seed being beaten 4-6 6-7 (3/7) by Germany’s Sabine Lisicki.

Canada’s Rebecca Marino, seeded 13th, was a 6-4 6-1 victor against South, while Slovakian 14th seed Magdalena Rybarikova saw off Webley-Smith, 6-4 6-3. Alla Kudryavtseva, the Russian 16th seed, was a 7-6 (7/2) 6-1 winner against Alize Cornet.

Sorana Cirstea was a 6-3 6-3 winner against Chang Kai-Chen, Mirjana Lucic beat Alexandra Stevenson 6-3 7-6 (9/7), Coco Vandeweghe saw off Shuko Aoyama 6-2 6-1 and Olga Govortsova fought hard to oust Romina Oprandi 6-2 2-6 6-4.

Alison Riske and Kirsten Flipkens also progressed to round two, along with Anna Tatishvili, Marina Erakovic, Rika Fujiwara and Arina Rodionova.

The top eight seeds have all been awarded first-round byes.