French Open 2016: Heather Watson beats Nicole Gibbs to power through to second round after rain delay

Watson had to wait for nearly 24 hours for her first-round match at the French Open to resume

Heather Watson celebrates her victory over Nicole Gibbs (Getty)

It was a long delay but it was worth it. Heather Watson had to wait for nearly 24 hours for her first-round match at the French Open to resume after it was abandoned because of bad weather last night, but when the contest resumed the Briton wasted no time completing her victory. Watson won all five games that were played on the resumption to beat Nicole Gibbs 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

Gibbs was leading 2-1 in the deciding set and serving at 40-30 when the players walked off court at 6.15pm on Sunday evening. A marathon men’s match on Court 3 left the Briton and the American with a long wait before they were able to pick up the pieces at 5.40pm this afternoon. At least it was dry, though there was still quite a chill in the air.

Watson, whose form had fluctuated wildly the previous day, needed to be on her game from the start – and she was. Gibbs, who is ranked 16 places below Watson at No 72 in the world, failed to take the first point on the resumption and was promptly broken.

Having held her own serve to go 3-2 up, Watson took a decisive hold on the match in the following game. Instead of being drawn into lengthy baseline battles against an athletic opponent who defends well, Watson wisely went for her shots, as she had in turning the second set around the previous day. Four clean winners, capped off by a rasping backhand return down the line, saw Watson break to love to take a 4-2 lead.

The players shake hands at the end of the first-round match (Getty)

Two games later a big forehand down the line took Watson to match point, which she converted with a smash. Gibbs threw her racket in frustration while Watson was all smiles. The two women will be doubles partners here, but a clearly distressed Gibbs offered only the most cursory of handshakes at the end.

The whole match had taken more than two and a quarter hours, but they were on court for only 27 minutes today. Watson made 46 winners in the match to Gibbs’ 14, which demonstrated the importance of the Briton taking an aggressive approach.

“I'm knackered,” Watson said afterwards. “I could go to sleep right now. It's been two long days. Yesterday the conditions were very wet. It was raining most of our match. I think that really suited the way she was playing, because when it's heavy, the ball is very slow and it stops. So with me trying to be aggressive, I have to win the point three or four times rather than just with one shot.”

She added: “I actually slept awfully last night. I couldn't get to sleep. My mind was going over everything in my whole life, not just the tennis match. I slept like five hours. But I woke up feeling fine, and it was just all about being positive for me.”

Watson admitted that there had been times the previous day when she had let her emotions get the better of her. “Today I said to myself that the one thing I was going to do was just make sure I was calm and kept my focus for every single point and didn't get too hyped up. Today was drier so it helped me a lot more. My balls went through and I hit a lot more winners.”

Watson’s victory should secure her place at this summer’s Olympics, which has always been one of her main goals for the year. The field for Rio is decided by the world rankings at the end of the French Open, with a place in the world’s top 65 almost certain to secure qualification. Watson needed to defend successfully the ranking points she had won in reaching the second round last year and has done so, which should mean she will at least stay around her present position at No 56.

In the second round Watson will take on the 2009 champion here, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat Yaroslava Shvedova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Watson and Kuznetsova have never met before.