Robson Gives Dockers a Lesson
7/01/2010
By Chris Pike
LAURA Robson is having a ball at the Hyundai Hopman Cup representing Great Britain and to now be in the box seat to make the Final with Andy Murray, but she took some time out to relive some childhood memories on Thursday.
Robson was born in Melbourne and spent time in Perth before moving to the UK where she still resides. She became a fan of the Fremantle Dockers when in Perth and even attended some home games, and on Thursday caught up with Luke McPharlin and Paul Hasleby for a hit at the State Tennis Centre.
Robson was also presented with a Dockers’ playing jumper and made her an international patron. She is a big fan of Aussie Rules as well and while she hasn’t had any luck converting any of her British friends, she still loves the game.
“The last game I went to was a couple of years ago so I’m not that up to date. My uncle’s on some committee there (Fremantle) so I was kind of forced into it (supporting them) a bit, but it’s good,” Robson said.
“It’s on TV sometimes and I try to get everyone to watch it, but they are like ‘Nar we will watch football.’ They like soccer, but AFL is much better. It’s just a fast game and football is so boring. They don’t score for a whole 90 minutes or something.”
Laura won’t be able to take in a Fremantle game anytime soon given it’s currently the AFL’s off season, but she’s been involved in plenty of the action herself out on Centre Court of the Burswood Dome this week.
The 15-year-old who won the 2008 Junior Wimbledon is playing in Perth for the first time teaming with a true megastar of the game in world No. 4 Murray.
She has enjoyed it, especially to take it right up to on-fire German Sabine Lisicki in her singles match, and then to help Murray win both of Britain’s mixed doubles encounters.
“The girl (Lisicki) I played yesterday (Wednesday) was 20 something in the world and I’m 400 places below her, but it’s been really good,” Robson said.
“We played really good in the mixed doubles against Germany and that was really fun. We still have one more match to go before we make the Final now.”
Robson has also had enormous family support in the stands at Burswood Dome and will do so again as she comes up against the biggest challenge of her career to date in world No. 5 Russian Elena Dementieva. She’s looking forward to the challenge though.
“It’s been really good. I’ve got to see my family a lot. They’ve been to all my matches so far and are coming again,” she said.
“It should be good. She will be the highest-ranked player that I’ve ever played basically. It should be a good experience.”
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