Day 5, Part 1 Tennis: Eastbourne

Yesterday, Devonshire Park was a sea of activity, so many people, so many

players, so many matches to catch up on after all the weather delays but

today, it is all about one court, Centre Court, two semifinals, for

players and, for the first time in history, two of them are British.

And a cheer from the crowd because the home favourite takes the first

set. That didn't look good. Johanna Konta, worrying times for the

British number one. She is back in the Eastbourne semifinals. That is a

very popular outcome to the end of this opening set. What a tournament,

what a win for Heather Watson. She has taken her place in the

semifinals here at Eastbourne. Good morning. You weren't expecting

us to be on air this early and, frankly, neither were we. Until

about ten seconds ago, this was going to be one of the great days

for British tennis here, with two players in the semifinals for more

than 40 years in this tournament, but literally in the last 20

seconds, as a result of the ball Johanna Konta had last night, a

really crashing fall that Gtech, she has just announced that she has

pulled out of her semifinal against Bush and above. She will get a bye

into the final but the question is, who will she play? Will it be

Heather Watson Caroline Wozniacki? They will be playing as scheduled at

11am this morning, and they are walking on court at the moment.

There is Heather. She has been in this situation before but given had

fairly wretched run in recent months, this is a fairly magnificent

resurgence for the player from Guernsey and the smile that lit up

tennis when she first came onto the scene a few years ago have come back

to her face with a vengeance in the last few days. Talk about shiny,

happy people on a lovely sunny day, Caroline Wozniacki lighting up the

scene here as well. At the risk of repeating ourselves here, which I am

sure we will do over the course of the next hour or so, Johanna Konta

has pulled out of the semifinals, so the winner of this match will play

Pliskova in the final. When you look at that, you realise what an immense

day it was for the two British players yesterday. They both had to

play two matches and to beat the French champion and spend the number

one seed here and the number one seed at Wimbledon next week,

Angelique Kerber, and have the ball in the middle of it, it was an

extraordinary day for her. If we have a quick chat with Sam Smith

about Konta and dancing at the last minute that she's going to pull out.

All you have to do really is look at that indentation in the court and

you realise what an absolute wallop it was that she took. Yes, my

instant reaction when she fell over, good morning, John, by the way. In

fact, not such a good morning. So depressed that she has pulled out.

There was a huge grain from Centre Court. She went down with such a

bang and she didn't have the chance to put her hand down at all. That

was the problem. It is a little bit about the way she moves. You can see

the little horseshoe to the left of the centreline and she took the all

court with her and she went smash onto her back. There was no give

there. She got her hand out but not in time. She went on her ankle. All

the weight of that fall was on her back and then she hit her head and

actually think it was just adrenaline going through her body. I

can't believe she got up to play those last two points. I mean, it

was of a nominal victory at the end of that, given that circumstance as

well. I am just hearing that she will hold a press conference in the

next few minutes. But I suppose the key thing to say is that Eastbourne

is big, but Wimbledon is bigger and she is in the top ten in the world.

She has a genuine chance of being the first British champion at

Wimbledon since Virginia Wade in 1977 and she wants to be in tiptop

condition at Wimbledon next week. By the way, the draw has come out today

and she plays the Taiwanese player who beat her in the first round at

Roland Garros a few weeks ago. Anyway, it wasn't to no avail, that

victory over curb, because it is a real mark in the sand for Joe Konta

with regards to what could happen over the next few weeks. If we put

the injury to one side, Sam, the fact she won two matches yesterday

gave two such outstanding players, she is in a good place at the

moment? That was the finest day in terms of tennis results of her

entire career. It was very special and it shows you that in sport

anything can happen. We are hearing that actually there is a further six

by an injury. I'm sure she woke up very bruised this morning and it is

not worth taking a chance. I am sure she'll have an MRI scan and she

won't take any chances. We don't know the extent of the injury and

how shall we for Wimbledon. I was surprised that she got up from that

injury and I'm not surprised that there will be at least the minimum

of breathing after going down in such a heavy fashion. Seeing Heather

Watson in our picture there, the Wimbledon draw that came out in the

last hour or so, she plays a Belgian who is ranked 117 in the world in

her first-round match and assuming that Andy Murray is going to be at

Wimbledon, I was listening to his mum Judy on Chris Evans's breakfast

show this morning and she wasn't giving too much away, but it does

seem that he will be there. He has drawn a qualifier in the first round

on Monday, that to be determined. Roger Federer plays Dolgopolov in

the first round and I'm sure that will be a fantastic match which will

entrance the crowd on the first day. So, here we have Heather Watson and

Sam, she is like a player reborn here, isn't she? Yes, I think it is

a product of her realising she had to make some changes. Our ranking

had fallen out of the top 100 and the coaching situation wasn't clear.

I felt like she was drifting and Heather is way too good a player to

let that happen. I think she had to bump along the bottom a little while

to wake up and say, right, I have to take control of my career now. She

switched her coaching team, has been training in London where she has a

flat. I feel her workrate has really gone up and this week, and the one

she had at Surbiton in a smaller tournament a few weeks ago, is the

product of her really looking in the mirror and saying, OK, I've got to

work as hard as I can. I'm 25 now and I should not be ranked around

120 in the world. She should be in the top 20 with the ability she has.

If you are wondering about the crowd here at Eastbourne thinking, hang on

a moment, they have lost a match, obviously the Men's Singles have

reached the semifinal stages as well and they were going to run a bit

today with four matches back-to-back, but they have still

got a cracking day with three matches including Novak Djokovic ch

against Daniil Medvedev, one of the new stars of the game. And then Gael

Monfils against Richard Gasquet. They paid hundreds of pounds for

that in France, and an hearing Eastbourne they get it for a few

quid. It's very good. Contractually, we are not allowed to show you those

matches but nonetheless, that is what the crowd have in store for

them here today. Just to let you know, our coverage, we are here

until 12 o'clock when the daily politics will take over. We will

then move from BBC Two to the red button and then we will return to

BBC Two from 1pm. So, Heather going through her last bits of

preparation. If you have literally just switched on having realised we

would be on at 11am, you won't know that Johanna Konta has sadly pulled

out of her semifinal against Pliskova, so Pliskova gets a bye

into the semifinal against one of these two. If you are marking your

cardboard tomorrow, 12:30pm this final -- if you are marking your

card for tomorrow, 12:30pm the final for the women at Eastbourne. Over to

the commentary team. Sam. So, British hopes resting on the

shoulders of Heather Watson. A third meeting between Herring Caroline

Wozniacki. Nice conditions, a little bit of a breeze. Sun poking three. I

am trying to be all positive about the weather. Sam Smith, I am trying

to be anyway. I have had a good influence there. Not in all areas, I

fear. We won't go into that but we will be positive about the weather

and about this match, which we are really looking forward to. Heather

Watson came in as a wild card, 136 in the world. But the challenge

today, she has come through against the defending champion, against the

14th seed, the 23rd seed who had lost only one game. It's been an

incredible run for Heather Watson at the challengers keep on coming and

now she faces world number six, Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniaki looking

for her fourth final of 2017. She won this tournament back in 2009.

She's had a fair bit of grass court practice coming into this, Heather

Watson. Runner-up on a grass court tournament in Surbiton and then

early exits as a wild card in both Nottingham and Birmingham.

Wozniaki, by contrast, this is her first tournament since reaching the

quarterfinals in Welwyn Garros. -- in Roland Garros.

First ace of the day. Picks up a couple of gain points for Heather

Watson. That'll do an excellent job of

settling any nerves for Heather Watson. Hold serve to 15. How do the

serves of Wozniaki and Watson shape up against each other? Heather likes

a hard, flat ball coming at her so this is a tricky one for her. She

has to use the pace of what is coming off of the court because she

struggles to generate enough of her own. Have a look at those clouds!

Just generating harrowing pace is something she finds quite difficult

and it's hard against Wozniaki because Wozniaki in a way is a very

similar player. She has a greater weight of shot man Heather but

Heather, to get through this match or to be competitive, is going to

have to let the racket go at the ball and be pretty aggressive out

there. I should say, between us, I think we

have looked at 12 different web apps and none of them had rain in them,

so I am quite confident those dark clouds we just saw going to go

around us, if that is possible. In Hong Kong, later in the year,

Wozniaki got a straight sets victory over Heather Watson.

Quite a conservative start to this match will Caroline Wozniacki, in

fact for both of them. It feels like Heather has her measuring stick out

when she hits the ball, very precise, doesn't like to rip out the

shot. An excellent point by Watson. She

took control and she brings up a first break point of the semifinal.

The winner to face Karolina Pliskova in tomorrow's final.

What you have from Caroline is she will look to work the point with

that backhand. The forehand I feel has been much improved. Sasha came

into the team at the beginning of the year. He is so much more than a

hitting partner. When he was with Serena Williams, eight years with

Serena Williams, she won ten Grand Slams. He had a lot of input into

those successes. And he said in Paris that working as the hitting

partner and a little bit on tactics, he has really focused on the

nutrition side of things. So she is very disciplined, she eats very

well. Heaven knows, and she's not under

too much pressure in this match in terms of expectation, she has got to

let the racket head go on that forehand and not stop it. I saw

Marion Bartoli on the way in hair, wearing quite precarious heels,

hopefully she made down the slope, and we both said that she mustn't

lock-up that forehand. She has got to let the racket go. She is finding

her spots grow, Watson. Athletically here against Wozniaki, she is the

Dane's match and she possibly moves even slightly better than Wozniaki

and that is a big plus in the Watson column. That doesn't happen very

often to Wozniaki. Wozniaki just made a very difficult

shot-mac incredibly easy. It's a good job the wind wasn't up because

that would have ended up outside the tramlines. Wonderful control on the

stretch and on the run. Get the Dane out of a spot of bother. Says a

couple of break points. We were discussing yesterday whether

Caroline Wozniacki might make a bad -- a mad dash to the WTA party but I

think due to be late finish against Halep, plans were cancelled and the

dress went back in the suitcase. As Heather Watson said, she is saving

her dress for next year. It is a good idea. It's a terrible

miss though. I think she felt that Wozniaki haven't quite got it up and

whilst Caroline is like a hare across the court, she loves to run,

she adores the physical part of the game.

A couple of bad shots up at the net. Strategically, excellent in this

match. Execution, not quite there. She slams that in frustration. A

break point opportunity for Wozniaki.

A little look up from Heather Watson but they were sent a challenge and

that was a break to love for Caroline Wozniacki, 2009 champion

here. Caroline Wozniacki completed the New York Marathon in three and a

half hours a couple of years ago and she says it's her biggest

achievement. She raised a lot of money for a children's charity. Have

you ever run a marathon? How much cartilage do you think I've got left

on my knees?! I'm just asking. I did one and I think it was in double the

time. And you know she went out the night before as well? And had

popcorn for dinner and didn't train for it. She has said she is not

going to do another one. It was a little harder than she realised. But

Caroline is an extraordinary athlete. If she wasn't playing

tennis she'd be a footballer or doing triathlon, I'm sure. I've

often felt that from that year where she started doing a lot more runny,

she actually picked up a lot of injuries the following season,

knees, ankles. This is Caroline Wozniacki we're talking about right

now. It hurt her and she has now said she is spending a lot less time

running and in the gym in the off-season and more time on court

because she realises, I don't see Caroline playing into her mid-30s.

Not the way she plays. This attritional style, how much court

she covers, how physical it is. She probably has a couple of years left,

I would imagine, if the results are good, because her body can't take

it. 26 years of age, Caroline Wozniacki. Slipped as low as number

74 in the world last year. Currently sitting at six. Former world number

one. 25 singles titles. The most amount of titles without winning a

Grand Slam title. And such a tough competitor. So, Wozniaki with the

break. It's quite a good warm up for

Caroline to play Simona Halep yesterday. Quite a similar game

style. She's not finding that -- this that easy. She is having to

generate out here and finds that easier on the backhand than the

forehand. Good use of the court by the Dane, as good an athlete as

Watson. A little bit too much Court Two cover.

Their second serve just sort of drifted. It was a dolly drop, it

really was. I'd like to see her much further inside the baseline to

return the second delivery. Much more aggressive.

Oh, don't push it. She knows straightaway. Didn't get her feet up

to the ball and didn't accelerate their racket head. It's almost like

she is overrun her default setting. If you listen to Heather, when she

speaks, every word is measured and precise. She needs to let go a

little on the tennis court. It makes such a difference. Importantly for

Wozniaki, that's consolidation of her break to edge ahead in this

first set. You are not only up against a wonderful athlete but one

of the toughest mentally out there as well. She is a great match player

if you look at her stats across the years. Generally, when she is fit

and healthy, she defends many more of the break points against and

converts many more. That is a match player right there.

Yes, she's upset because she is not committing out here. But you can

see, there's not the pace for her to move her racket head onto the ball.

She is having to accelerate that racket and she's finding it very

difficult to do so. He has been working with her for the last four

or five weeks and it's going very well so far.

Wozniacki now though with a chance for back-to-back love breaks on the

Watson serve. There it is. Little fist pump from

the Dane. She has a double break. Her second break to love and takes

control of this first set of the semifinal.

As we see Caroline Wozniacki taking a drink at the break, we saw a

couple of shots of Colin Beacher working with Heather Watson. There's

been a change for her this year in terms of coaching. There's been a

lot of changes for a good part of her career for Heather, working with

an Argentinian coach, where she was based in Florida. He really

developed Heather and that's when she was up at her best ranking.

Towards the end of 2015, he decided to go back to Argentinament he has a

young -- Argentina. I think the relationship might have been getting

a little stale. Since then she hasn't really settled with anyone.

She's looked at various options, used coaches from the academy. Then

it was, I mean, it wasn't long ago, just after the French Open that she

was looking at some options and decided to go with, I always get

this wrong, the JTI set up at Chiswick. Colin is one of the

coaches there. David Felger oversees the programme. Good set up there.

They have juniors, some older players. I think her just taking

charge. I was saying to John at the start, she was bumping along the

bottom and she had to do something decisive. It looks to be a very good

move. Before everyone tunes in on Sunday

and says where's the Eastbourne final - you can watch it on

Saturday. Caroline Wozniacki's really finding

her rhythm out there now. Well, I spent a lot of Sunday watching her

practice with her dad. You can tell when she's playing well because the

ball comes off the forehand really well.

It's a good barometer of how she's playing.

First double fault of the semifinal for Caroline Wozniacki.

Much better distribution from Watson. You have to be accurate. You

have to trade for a while. If there's a chance to attack, you must

take it. Heather is still a little too far back behind the baseline.

Opportunity now though here for Heather Watson. A double break down,

but a chance to get one back. If she had set the tone for with the

break opportunities in theerly yes set. She's only won one point on

serve so far in this semifinal. UMPIRE: Miss Watson is challenging

the call. A weaker part of Heather's game. A lovely first delivery. She's

getting more on it. The second serve doesn't really have a lot of shape,

a lot of spin. Wozniacki is one of the best

returners out there. A couple more opportunities for

Wozniacki to put herself in a position to serve out this first

set. There's a double break back.

Caroline Wozniacki, shortly, with 27 minutes on the clock, will be

serving to take the firgs set of this semifinal.

If Heather gets the opportunity, should she try and get forward more

and play the net game? We know how good she is at the net. She's the

reigning mixed doubles champion. Is that something she should try and do

more of? In this match up? Yeah, I think the problem is she's not

playing well enough off the ground to create spaces to come in.

Caroline absolutely loves a target. Have you to come in off something

great. Caroline Wozniacki needs to be right at the end of her range

hitting that ball. Then you have to close off the net. I felt in the

early few games Heather was trying to do that. She was a little more on

her ground strokes. Heather, I'm sure, is sitting at the change of

ends and she knows she's not being as aggressive as she needs to be.

Trying to do it and change and make this transition from being a very

good athlete, a good counterpuncher to a more offensive player, that is

a journey -- -- offencive player, that is a journey. They'll be

banging on to Heather that she has to make this change. Otherwise

she'll be around 70, 80 in the world. She is so much better, with

what she has. It's a mental change as well. Last year, Caroline

Wozniacki came in here as the world number 36. She plays here today as

the world number six. She has new balls with which to try and serve

out set wup -- one. UMPIRE: Ms Wozniacki is challenging

the ball on the right service line, the ball was called out.

A lot of that ball was on the line. Wozniacki had the feeling it was

good, challenged immediately. Takes her two points from the set.

Lovely. That brings up the first of two set points.

You cannot give her this much time. That's pretty much the story of this

set. There it is. Caroline Wozniacki

moves to within a set of being back in the Eastbourne final, 32 minutes

on the clock. Wozniacki takes over Heather Watson by 6-2.

STUDIO: That's a disappointing start for Heather Watson, a first set

littered with too mannier errors. -- many errors there. It's been a

disappointing day for British tennis full stop from the word go. As a

consequence of that fall last night, Johanna Konta, I mean, she really

went a wallop there. Somehow she came back to beat the world number

one, and number one seed at Wimbledon next week, but because of

a thoracic spine injury, you can see she hits her back, there in a really

big way. Because of that spinal injury she's decided that discretion

is the better part of valour and pulled out of the competition that.

Means that Karolina Pliskova -- competition. That means Karolina

Pliskova gets through to the final. She will play the winner this match.

In the first round of Wimbledon next week, Johanna Konta has drawn:

Andy Murray has drawn a qualifier in the first round on Monday, when he

walks onto Centre Court. That's assuming that his hip injury allows

him to walk onto Centre Court on Monday. He plays a qualifier, so dud

Kyle Edmund. We're here on BBC Two through to

midday. Then we'll be on the red button. Then we come back here to

BBC Two from 1pm this afternoon. Talking about Johanna Konta, here

she is, not looking too bad. That's in the press room here at

Eastbourne. I think the next year it's going to be demolished with the

big expansion plans taking place here. Jo's obviously not too bad but

didn't feel well enough to take part in the semifinal match today. So

that's one British player would won't be playing tomorrow. Heather

needs time prove slightly or she won't -- needs to improve slightly

or she won't be either. COMMENTATOR: It's all to do for

Heather Watson in the second set. Both players brought their coaches

on court at the end of the first set.

For Heather this is not about hitting the cover off the ball. It's

just playing with what she's got in hay very different way, getting up

-- in a very different way, getting up the court. I think she could make

a few more first serves. I was looking at the wrong side of

the computer screen, that was Wozniacki's numbers. I would like

her to take a little more off that first set. Put a little more on it

and get shorter balls. That makes things a little bit

easier, a quick point, ace. She needs a good start here.

That first set was very passive. When I talk about Heather stopping

the racket head on the forehand that's a perfect scam put of it. --

example of it. It's mental and technical.

Important hold for Heather Watson first game of the second set,

trailing by a set to Caroline Wozniacki. Heather Watson started

the year as the world number 81. Slipped down to world number 126.

Needed a wildcard for Eastbourne. Needed a wildcard for Wimbledon.

Live rankings tell us she's up to 102. This is a premiere level WTA

tournament, from the third wrung of the tournaments with the WTA. Points

up for grabs. 470 for the winner. A good jump for Heather Watson who

would go further if she comes through this. Could go as high as 69

in the world. For that, she would have to win this and beat Pliskova

tomorrow. Does show the difference at this

tournament level what a few wins can do to your ranking.

You look at the reaction, heather does not like to miss. It isn't in

her mentality. Good errors, went for it, the ball was on. OK she missed.

But go for it. Love hold for the Dane. Looking as

comfortable as she has been so far in this march. It's good to see how

Sasha has come in. I can't speak highly enough of him. Caroline has

tried a number of coach consultants to work with her and her father.

It's lasted days, sometimes. Sasha brings great energy,

expertise. He spent a long time with Serena

Williams. Caroline said she asked Serena's blessing before asking him

to work with her. That was a mighty good forehand.

He's shortened the swing a little, which is good. With Sasha, if you're

around him, he brings great energy. He's an extrovert. Caroline and

Serena are similar characters. She's had a little bit of trouble

with that shoe, Heather Watson. She was looking at it the end of the

second set. Better from Watson. OK, she won the

point. But it was a very late decision to move forward. She nearly

got caught out there. Difficult, difficult to outpunch

Wozniacki from the baseline. Yeah, they look very happy with this

forehand. The funny thing is, it's an irony here, Wozniacki used to do

exactly what Heather does on her forehand, not accelerate the racquet

head on the ball, get locked up. Now look at that, racquet flying at the

ball. What a difference. There's the point, there's the

break. Caroline Wozniacki, who already has a set in the bag, now

leads Heather Watson by 2-1. STUDIO: As things stand, it's going

to be a Wozniacki-Pliskova final tomorrow. We've seen in so many

matches here this week the way things have ebbed and flowed. Who's

to say what might happen in the course of this match. If you want to

follow it, we're going to be leaving this game here on BBC Two in a few

moments' time. We will continue coverage on the red button until

such time and obviously, if it's still going at 1pm, we'll be back

here on BBC Two with the conclusion. We will be on the red button in a

few moments. COMMENTATOR: Caroline Wozniacki has

looked awesome this week. This is her first tournament since Roland

Garros. The way she's been hitting the ball, dispatching her opponents.

You touched at the start that meeting with Simona Halep. It looked

as though the legs had gone from Halep, the concentration. The focus

and mental strength of Wozniacki is so strong. It's solid. Yeah, her

legs are never going to go. She runs all day. A lot of that is to do with

the mind as well. She's super tough. She has never got enough credit in

my mind for spending 67 weeks as world number one. She wins titles

for fun. She gets out there, plays week in, week out. She gives a lot

to the tour and has put together a fabulous group but just needs that

slam title. If she can stay fit, she knows she's in the mix.

She starts her Wimbledon campaign against Timea Babos. She won't even

know that's the first round yet. We're going onto the red button now.

And we return to BBC Two at 1pm. SI KING: Let me guess, you're

seeing a garden, aren't you? DAVE MYERS: Well,

we're seeing a kitchen! With culinary inspiration

from the great outdoors...