Watson's French Open hopes ended in first round of qualifying

French Open 2025

Dates: 25 May-8 June Venue: Roland Garros, Paris

Coverage: Live radio commentaries across 5 Live Sport and BBC Sounds, plus live text commentaries on the BBC Sport website and app

Heather Watson's hopes of reaching the French Open main draw are over after the Briton was beaten by Daria Saville in the first round of qualifying.

Watson, aiming for an 11th main-draw appearance at Roland Garros, lost 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 to the Australian.

Britain's Jan Choinski also exited in the opening round of men's qualifying, losing 6-4 7-6 (7-5) to Italian Giulio Zeppieri.

The French Open - the second Grand Slam of the year - begins on Sunday.

Britons Dan Evans and Billy Harris go head-to-head in men's qualifying on Tuesday, while Fran Jones is hoping to progress in the women's competition.

Players have to come through three qualifying rounds in Paris to reach the main draw.

Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal are already in the women's main draw, while Jack Draper, Jacob Fearnley and Cameron Norrie will contest the men's.

Momentum swung back and forth in the opening set between Watson and Saville, with the Briton rallying to a 4-2 lead after initially going a break down, only for Saville to level up.

Watson battled back from 40-0 down on serve to move within one game from the opening set, but she was unable to take her first set point.

A tie-break was confirmed by another exchange of breaks - but not before Watson initially refused to continue the match after being given a second time violation by the chair umpire.

She claimed she had been waiting for a ball to be returned to her, rather than deliberately delaying the point, but the umpire disagreed.

Saville ultimately stepped in and asked the umpire to give Watson her first serve back.

The Australian former world number 20 then dominated the tie-break and carried that momentum into the second set, quickly establishing a 3-0 lead.

Watson briefly threatened a comeback when she broke back for 3-2, but Saville was able to reset and closed out victory with another three-game streak.