Watson’s French Open hopes ended in first round of qualifying

French Open 2025

Dates: May 25 through June 8th, Location: Roland Garros, Paris

After being defeated by Daria Saville in the opening round of qualifying, Heather Watson’s chances of making it to the French Open main draw are over.

Watson lost 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 to the Australian, making his 11th major draw appearance at Roland Garros.

Italian Giulio Zeppieri defeated Briton Jan Choinski 6-4 7-6 (7-5) in the opening round of men’s qualifying, which also saw him lose.

The second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, will take place on Sunday.

On Tuesday, British competitors Fran Jones and Dan Evans square off in men’s qualifying, while Billy Harris and Billy Harris will battle it out for the title.

To become the main draw, players must pass three of Paris’ qualifying rounds.

In the opening set, Watson and Saville exchanged their momentum, leading 4-2 after the first break before Saville finally equalized.

Watson rallied back from a 40-0 set of serve errors to break the opening set’s deadlock, but she was unable to take her final set point.

Another set of breaks confirmed a tie-break, but Watson initially refused to play the game after being flagged twice by the chair umpire for a violation.

Instead of purposefully putting the ball back on her, she claimed she had been waiting for it, but the umpire disagreed.

In the end, Saville intervened and demanded that Watson receive her first serve.

The Australian former world number 20 then quickly took control of the tie-break, extending that momentum into the third set and giving the match a 3-0 lead.