Robson Proves Herself a Star of the Future
10/01/2010
By Chris Pike
FIFTEEN-year-old Brit Laura Robson had a week to savour at Hyundai Hopman Cup XXII and her win in the women’s singles Final is something that leaves little doubt that she’s a star in the making.
Robson had tried hard all week in her singles matches and started each game well taking the first set off Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, taking Germany’s Sabine Lisicki to a first set tie-break and then only losing the first set to world No. 5 Russian Elena Dementieva 4-6, but in Saturday’s Final everything clicked for the Melbourne-born Brit.
With a host of family members cheering her on, she stunned the 26th ranked Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez from Spain by taking the first set 6-1 and then closing out the match in a second set tie-break.
She also formed a terrific team with world No. 4 Andy Murray and they won all three mixed doubles matches in Group B before narrowly going down in the Final.
The experience of playing, and doing well against, some of the best players in the world was great for Robson, especially to finish the week with a win in the Final.
I thought I played better against Lisicki than against Dementieva, but today was really good in the singles. I thought I played really good. I knew I could play that well, it’s just maintaining it throughout the whole match that was the problem,” Robson said.
“Well she (Martinez Sanchez) plays quite a lot of spin on the ball so if you don’t take it early it bounces over my head, so I guess my only option was to attack it.”
Robson would have dearly loved to win the Cup to win herself a Doris Brinkhaus diamond-encrusted tennis ball, and thought she gave herself a great chance by beating Martinez Sanchez but it wasn’t to be.
She now turns her attention to Melbourne where she will play the junior Australian Open and has been given a wildcard into the qualifiers to play for a place in the main draw.
“I was getting more confident throughout the week anyway because I was playing good matches against these girls and now I’m going to go over to Melbourne full of energy. It depends on the draw and everything else. But even if I lose I’ll be there for juniors anyway.”
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