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Heather Watson has made the final of the WTA Hobart Open.
She is a clear favourite against Madison Brengle.

It's covered live on BTSport2 (Sky ch414) tomorrow morning at 3am.

Apologies for the tautology. :)

what sort of ranking is attainable, for Heather, at her current rate of progress?

She's currently 49 in the rankings and peaked at 39 in February 2013.
http://www.wtatennis.com/singles-rankings

She'll get 280 points tomorrow if she wins (and she didn't qualify for Sydney in the equivalent week last year) so that will be a big boost and could see her go near 39 in the rankings again.

http://www.wtatennis.com/all-about-rankings

I'd say that the top 30 is achievable.
At that point, she will get automatic entry into bigger tournaments (and seeding in Grand Slams) which would help her a lot.

if laura robson can get back to where she was before her injury we could have 2 ladies with gram slam potential in the next 2 years IMHO

and they can spur each other on

"Grand Slam potential"?

sorry typing while playing isnt good idea for me

I was just wondering what you meant.

i think the pair of them have the abilty to challenge in grand slams in the future and possible win one

i dont mean this year or even next but they are still relatively young

I can't see that happening but I'd be delighted to be proved wrong.
Robson has the bigger potential so she'd be the one to be able to challenge the top players but still not on a consistent basis.

dont get me wrong i dont think either will be top 4 in world or anything stupid

but i do think they will be able to put on a showing in a grand slam or 2 and make semis or final at some point

Heather's odds for the final have shortened.

When I lived in Guernsey I used to play tennis with Heather for three hours on a Saturday morning at our local club for a couple of years.

She must have been about 10 but could hit the ball incredibly hard. Really hope she can win tonight and kick on this year.

You didn't mention the score.
You were beaten by a 10 year old girl, weren't you?

I was 16 at the time and actually remember giving her a decent game most weeks. They quickly took her off to America once she started 'maturing' and it was clear she could be very good.

She still haven't mentioned the scores, she must have really hammered you.
I bet she was saying to her coach, 'this one hits like a kitten. Bring me MEN'. :)

Only joking, that's a cool claim to fame if she goes on to have a decent career.

Laura Robson was better when she was 16.

I mean, erm... aye

Congratulations to Heather Watson; Hobart International Ladies Singles winner.

She won 6-3, 6-4 after a slow start where she struggled in a strong wind. She kept calm and gradually worked it out.

Excellent news.

What does she now have to do to get into the top 30, Vince?


(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/01/13/24A75F0B00000578-0-image-a-13_1421146681901.jpg)

(http://e1.365dm.com/15/01/768x576/heather-watson-hobart-international-tennis_3252611.jpg?20150117071823)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Watson

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7iOdq7CEAAsIzd.jpg:large)

The rankings (on which seedings and automatic entries to tournaments are based) are calculated on a rolling one year basis, i.e. if you won the Australian Open last year and didn't play it this year you would lose 2000 points from your ranking.  (There are also special considerations called "Protected Rankings" to allow for top players being injured so that they don't drop too far down the rankings).
There is a separate system termed "The Race" which just counts points for the year to date and gives a better picture of how you are faring with regard to qualifying for the year-end tournament in Singapore for the top 8 players. Anyway, I digress.

There are different amounts of points allocated for different levels of tournaments. The Grand Slam's obviously award the most points, then (excluding the one-off year end WTA Championship and "Tournament of Champions") the Premier Mandatory tournaments, The Premier 5 etc.
The Hobart International which Watson has just won is relatively low down the pecking order.

http://www.wtatennis.com/all-about-rankings

So basically, Watson has to perform better than those ranked near to her in the rankings relative to last year's performance. She lost in the first round in last year's Australian Open so she has very few "points to defend".
After Hobart she will be on 1292 points, I think, as she didn't play this week last year. Varvara Lepchenko is in 30th place on 1480 points currently, so she has to gain another 200 points to overtake her. Of course there are several other people that she also has to gain points on.
Casey Dellacqua who is in 29th with 1512 points made the 4th round last year so she would lose 230 points if she lost in the first round this year.
If Watson made the 4th round in Australian she might break the top 30, I'd guess. Unfortunately, although she avoided drawing a seed, she has a tough first round draw against Tsvetana Pironkova who is playing well.

Even after the Australian Open, Watson has relatively few points to defend in the next few weeks so, if she plays a full schedule, she should rise in the rankings over the next couple of months. If she does well, she might even make the top 30 in time to be seeded for The French Open in May.

More than you wanted to know, I'm sure. :)

More than I expected, but very interesting. I don't really follow tennis, but stuff like that arouses my interest, so I shall now follow Heather's progress.

Good luck her.

Ms Watson has risen to a career high 38 in the rankings after this win.

Innappropriate use of the word "arouses" IMO

Yes, I'd prefer an unambiguous piques

Heather struggled with her health in the first round of the Australian Open.
She had the doctor on court towards the end of the first set when she was suffering with nausea and dizziness.

She eventually lost 4-6, 0-6 to Tsvetana Pironkova.

Bets she's over the moon about this article being written.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/30908551

Probably doesn't feel embarrassed in the slightest

There was a big discussion on radio 5 about it.   I think it was Kelly Sotherton talking about how she used to plan for the while season in advance.  Manipulating the cycle with the contraceptive pill so that she was always period free on important dates.  I was fairly oblivious that sportswomen did this before. 

Would be a huge betting angle for sure! 

They will all do it.

Just the article is about that the sportsworld should be more open minded about it. What on earth we meant to do? Give a girl a headstart because its the time of the month?

Also, the point i was more meaning, is im sure Heather Watson is over the moon that everybody who reads BBC sport knows she was on her period. Little bit of invasion of privacy really.