Tennis: Heather says the forecast is bright for UK

Heather WATSON insisted the future is bright for British tennis after consigning another embarrassing statistic to history at the French Open yesterday.

Four days after her 19th birthday, the former US Open junior champion beat Stephanie Foretz Gacon 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 in the first round at Roland Garros to become the first British woman to win a main-draw match since Clare Wood in 1994.

Even more encouraging for British tennis fans was the manner in which the world No.?117 secured victory last night, saving five set points in the opener before breezing through the second set against her 30-year-old opponent.

Watson, who plays Kaia Kanepi in the second round, said: "I don't really know much about the records but we've got a lot of good players coming through.

"I feel like I'm getting older because I've just had my birthday. Laura (Robson) is coming up, and on the boys' side there's George Morgan and Oli Golding."

It was not all good news, however, as Anne Keothavong had looked set to pip Watson to it earlier in the day when she led by a set and a break against Vesna Dolonts, but the Londoner finally succumbed 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 after a gruelling three hours and 21 minutes.

Caroline Wozniacki dismantled veteran Kimiko Date Krumm 6-0, 6-2, while in the men's section Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer made smooth progress in straight sets past Thiemo de Bakker and Feliciano Lopez respectively, although Tomas Berdych became a casualty, losing to French qualifier Stephane Robert 3-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 9-7.