Wimbledon 2017: Heather Watson's coach makes hilarious promise if she reaches the fourth round

Watson is within touching distance of achieving her long-term goal of reaching the second week of a grand slam - which could be bad news for her coach Morgan Phillips

Watson's coach has made an unusual promise (Getty )

Heather Watson is within touching distance of achieving her long-term goal of reaching the second week of a grand slam - which could be bad news for coach Morgan Phillips.

Watson produced one of her best performances at Wimbledon with a 6-0 6-4 win over 18th seed Anastasija Sevastova to make the third round for the third time.

She has never gone further either here or at any other slam - also making the last 32 at Wimbledon in 2012 and 2015 and at the Australian Open in 2013.

Should she beat former world number one Victoria Azarenka on Friday, Phillips will have to honour an uncomfortable promise.

Watson said: "It's been one of my goals forever. I made those big goals years ago. Making second week of a slam would be huge for me.

"And if I do, my coach said he'd shave his head. But I said, 'No, your girlfriend will kill you. You can shave your legs."'

It has been a difficult 12 months for Watson, who struggled after losing a close match in the first round at Wimbledon last year and had been unable to find any momentum.

She dropped out of the top 100 and failed to qualify for the French Open but things finally came together again in Eastbourne last week, where she reached the semi-finals.

Watson has spent much of the last year without a regular coach and credits Phillips and Colin Beecher, who she began working with at the start of the clay season, for helping her turn things around.

She said: "I'm happy with them. Practices are going really well. I feel like I have structure. I'm enjoying it, which is the most important part.

"But it makes me want to work hard, as well. I feel like my tennis is just really improving at the moment."

Watson is no stranger to ups and downs having broken into the top 50 in 2012 only to tumble back into triple figures after struggling with glandular fever.

She then rose to a career-high mark of 38 in January 2015 before slipping down again.

While Watson stopped short of empathising too much with Bernard Tomic after his claim that he was bored during his first-round match, she has experienced her own struggles with motivation.

The 25-year-old said: "I'm not motivated every week. I think that's normal. It's very hard to be.

"But you have to find that motivation in the weeks where it's harder, where you're in a random country, all the way on the back courts, nobody's watching. It's tougher. It's very different. It's easy to be motivated here for me.

"It's just like telling somebody to be happy every single week. That's not life. There's highs and lows to everything you do. For me the highs are really high."


 Watson is hoping to book her place in the third round 
 (EPA)

Currently ranked 102, Watson will climb back into double figures after a superb performance against the fast-rising Sevastova, who won the warm-up tournament in Majorca.

She did not put a foot wrong in a first set that lasted only 19 minutes, not making a single unforced error.

Sevastova looked out of ideas, with Watson giving short shrift to her favoured drop shots, but the British player's level dropped a little at the start of the second.

Watson trailed by a break at 3-1 and then 4-3 but a break to love of the Sevastova serve in the eighth game proved the crucial blow to the Latvian's resolve.

"Starts are very important, but I'm really happy with the second set because she raised her level," said Watson.

"The first set I just felt great, pretty flawless. It's always going to change. I've got to expect her to raise her level and to try something new, and she did.

"I was pleased with how I remained calm and just kept doing what I was doing."

Now Watson must try to win her first match in five attempts against Azarenka, who claimed the best win of her comeback so far 6-3 6-3 against Elena Vesnina.