By Heather Watson Great Britain Fed Cup player and world number 142

Heather was making her Fed Cup debut at the 15-team event in Israel

I absolutely loved my first Fed Cup experience - and I love my team!

We finished fifth out of the 15 teams in Euro/Africa Group 1, so just missed out on promotion, but we were really close and I'm very confident we can get promotion next time.

Our group was the toughest with Switzerland, who have two players in the top 50, and Denmark, who have the world number one, and we were missing our number one, Elena Baltacha, for those two ties because of an injury.

I went into the tournament not sure if I was going to play singles or doubles at all, and I ended up playing the most matches of anyone, so I don't think I was completely ready for it mentally this time, but I still got four wins out of five.

I told you in my last column about the rap that I did with Joss, instead of a speech, in front of the rest of the team as we were both making our Fed Cup debuts.

Well, we had the official dinner with all the other teams the night before the tournament and we did it again - only this time it was captured on camera! At least we were all looking very smart in our team outfits, which I love, although it looked pants on me because I hadn't got mine fitted yet!

I really want to play Wimbledon, obviously - it's the one tournament I want to play in the whole year Heather Watson

With Bally out injured for our opening tie against Switzerland on Wednesday, I found out the night before that I'd be playing the opening singles and, basically, I thought, "Yaaayyyy!"

As it turned out, it was a bit disappointing as I was up against Timea Bacsinszky, the world number 46, and lost 6-1 6-3.

The first game was unreal but after that I did more badly than well. I kept my fighting spirit, I just wasn't on my normal game. I wasn't as consistent as usual and I was very passive. Bacsinszky has an unbelievable backhand and I was just feeding her strength.

Fortunately, I had the chance to make amends in the doubles and I was so excited I got to play with Joss. We'd played together once before at Wimbledon, which was pretty successful, and we got another win but couldn't stop the Swiss taking the tie 2-1.

Joss and Heather made a successful doubles team (Photo: LTA)

That meant we needed to beat Denmark on Friday to avoid a relegation play-off, so on Thursday I had a really good hit and got more feel for the ball, better than the day before, and then we went to watch Denmark's doubles against Switzerland to prepare ourselves for the next day.

I played the opening singles again, this time against Karen Barbat, the world number 543. I'd actually seen her play before in Denmark, in the qualifying for the indoor WTA tournament there, and she'd played quite well so I was prepared for a tough match, which worked to my advantage because I played awesome and won 6-0 6-1.

This time the tie came down to the doubles and I was so excited to play against Caroline Wozniacki. I love playing the top players, seeing how they play - I want to learn and take in everything that I can. It was just a really exciting match, very tight all the way through, a real grind.

Our captain Nigel Sears and doubles coach Louis Cayer said beforehand that it was going to be a toughie, but we always knew that - she's the number one in the world, she was solid and she didn't miss.

It was a completely different match to our first one and we had to get it going. We went 4-0 up in the third set and, to be honest, I was zoning in and out and Joss was keeping me focused. At one point we'd won a game and I was just standing there and Joss had to say, "Come on, game!" I was like, "Oh, game…."

GREAT BRITAIN FED CUP TEAM 1. Elena Baltacha 2. Anne Keothavong 3. Heather Watson 4. Jocelyn Rae

But it had been a long day, I'd played my singles, then I watched Anne in the whole of her match and then the doubles was a really long one. It's tough to keep focused throughout a whole match no matter how long or short, but the main thing is we won it 7-5 in the third.

That evening I spent eating, showering, getting a massage - which I hate, because I'm really ticklish - and getting ready for the last day, when we would play to decide our final seeding position for next time.

We found out after dinner that we were going to be up against Croatia, which I was excited about because I know most of their girls as we came through juniors together.

I played Silvia Njiric, world number 592, in the opening singles and won 6-2 7-5. It was good in some ways, although I didn't feel it was the best match I played.

There wasn't much rhythm to the match and if you were watching, you were probably bored, but I won and then Bally wrapped up the tie to give us a 2-0 win and finish off the week really well.

I can't wait to pay Fed Cup again but for now I'm heading straight back to the States where I train for the next couple of months, and I'll be playing tournaments over there before coming back to the UK in the summer. I really want to play Wimbledon, obviously - it's the one tournament I want to play in the whole year.

And if I get any time off with all that going on, I'm looking forward to seeing my dad, my friends, hanging out and being carefree!

Heather was talking to BBC Sport's Piers Newbery.

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