But Watt \u2013 who had the centre-court crowd on their feet at times \u2013 showed he can be more than competitive, off the back of his serve and powerful forehand. The experience has added more belief for Watt, who is the ultimate late bloomer, after coming to the fore in the last two years. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a couple shots that missed by a few inches and, if those had landed, then it could have easily been the other way,\u201d said Watt. \u201cBut that\u2019s tennis and I\u2019ll learn from this experience, take that with me and keep improving. Honestly, the fact that I can hang in there with a guy top 50 in the world [gives me confidence].\u201d<\/p>\n
Watt isn\u2019t sure he wants to pursue a career in singles, given his recent startling gains in doubles, where he has risen to No 87 and won several Challengers alongside compatriot Finn Reynolds. That has left them on the cusp of regular starts at ATP level and they are a good chance of playing at the Australian Open, currently fourth on the alternate list. It\u2019s a compelling choice but Monday\u2019s experience will be food for thought, given the rarity of Kiwi singles exponents in the last decade or so. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me a lot of confidence behind my singles,\u201d said Watt. \u201cWe have some big doubles matches coming up with Aussie Open as well next week, so I\u2019ll see how that goes and I\u2019ll take them all into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watt was a mystery to most spectators on Monday, who would not have seen him play before. He impressed in the Davis Cup tie in Georgia last September \u2013 winning both singles matches \u2013 but wasn\u2019t a feature on the scene here as a junior, before going to college in the United States. <\/p>\n
But he showed why there is genuine excitement about him, sending down a barrage of 220km\/h serves. And he wasn\u2019t a one-trick pony, with some lovely touches at the net, angled groundstrokes and decent agility, considering his height. <\/p>\n
Watt was broken at 3-3 in the first set \u2013 sending a forehand just wide \u2013 but had a chance to break back straight away, although wasn\u2019t able to take it. The second set felt tighter, as Watt started to adjust to the level. A turning point came in the third game, as Watt had two break opportunities but Brooksby was good enough to save both. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a big momentum shifter, for him as well,\u201d said Watt. \u201cFor him to get through that, he knew he dodged a bit of a bullet and, for me, it was a string of unforced errors or big points that I didn\u2019t capitalise on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watt then gave up a relatively easy service game at 2-2, but kept fighting to the end. He saved a remarkable five match points, serving at 3-5 down before Brooksby was able to convert the sixth, assisted by a net cord. <\/p>\n
Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a sports journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But Watt \u2013 who had the centre-court crowd on their feet at times \u2013 showed he can be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85040,136818,9092,25286,32810,5837,4915,35142,90053,305,2547,78,14054,194,5836,9878,111,139,7805,69,1562,213,122496,134028,377],"class_list":["post-229745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-85040","tag-admirers","tag-against","tag-asb","tag-atp","tag-battle","tag-classic","tag-debut","tag-gained","tag-have","tag-impresses","tag-in","tag-james","tag-kiwi","tag-lost","tag-monday","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-no","tag-nz","tag-plenty","tag-sports","tag-watt","tag-wildcard","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}