Heather Watson was forced to scrap. Nothing came to her easily, it was rarely a beautiful fight and when a match point came and went, a tentative backhand dribbling into the net, briefly it seemed that victory might slip from her grasp. It was that kind of lurching contest: bitty, unpredictable, disconcertingly ramshackle.
Moments later Watson was beaming after one last forehand return from Varvara Lepchenko sailed wide to seal a 7-6, 6-2 win for the British No1 in the first round of the Aegon International. Watson did not care how she won, even if the contest did not end with a flourish, and her reward is a daunting challenge against Elina Svitolina, the world No17, on Tuesday.