Laura Robson has made it through to the final 10 nominees for this year’s BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award. Proving how tough it was to get shortlisted this year is the fact there are 4 Olympians among the nominees.
A panel chaired by BBC Sport presenter John Inverdale met on Monday 10 November to decide on the shortlist of 10. They will meet again on 24 November to choose the top three from this list. These three will be invited to the live event, this year held in Liverpool Echo Arena on Sunday, 14 December at 19:00 GMT. The winner is selected by secret ballot
If Laura wins it won’t be the first time a tennis player has won the award - Andy Murray won it in 2004, and Greg Rusedski also won a Sports Personality of the Year award in 1997, Tim Henman was second that year.
Read more about the other nominees over at the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year page.
Laura won the first of what will surely be many senior singles’ titles yesterday after beating fellow British junior Samantha Vickers 6-3 6-2 in the final of a $10k event in Sunderland, England. With this title in hand Laura should move well inside the top 500 this week, so keep a look out for updated ranking lists soon!
To bring you up to speed on this small tournament which received pretty much no coverage in the news, here’s how Laura got to the final…
Seeded fifth for the tournament, Robson made everything look easy once again as she beat 16-year-old Stephanie Cornish in straight sets in her first round match, then did the same to 23-year-old Matea Mezak in the second round, winning both 6-3 6-3.
Robson was pushed to 3 sets just once in the tournament - her third round opponent Laura-Ioana Andrei of Romania gave her a better fight in the quarter-finals with Robson eventually winning the tough match 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 7-5. Laura came back stronger from this to win her semi-final 6-3 6-3 against Tara Moore, before finally finishing off the tournament with the straight sets victory over Samantha Vickers.
Great job Laura!
Link: Sunderland image gallery
The Fortis Championships have not been good for Laura Robson in terms of winning. She played in the doubles tournament today partnering Argentina’s Gisela Dulko. The pair got off to a bad start being broken in the first game, and losing the set quickly. Laura and Gisela struck back in the second set though, getting as far as a 3-0 lead, before losing momentum and then losing 6 games in a row to their opponents Vera Dushevina and Mariya Koryttseva of Russia and Ukraine respectively. Laura and Gisela lost in straight sets 6-2 6-3.
Laura won’t be leaving for home just yet though, she’ll be staying on to catch a glimpse of how the other players train and prepare for their matches, hopefully bringing home some useful tips. Let’s hope she can get back to her winning ways in her next tournament!
French Open champion Ana Ivanovic has told BBC Sport she thinks Laura is great and has a lot of potential in her game, and has a few words of advice for her:
“I think she’s great, she has so much potential and she’s only 14 and hits the ball really, really hard”.
“She won Wimbledon juniors and has also played against some WTA players before and is obviously getting more experience. I think she’s definitely one to look for.
“I think she just needs to be determined and motivated to keep improving and not get satisfied with what she has, but I had a chance to meet her and she seems very professional for her age, very determined and a very nice girl, so I think she’s going the right way.”
The BBC also have a short video clip (only 21 seconds long!) of the press conference held after her loss yesterday. You can watch this and read the full article over at BBC Sport.
Laura Robson has been knocked out of the Fortis Championships in Luxembourg in her first round match against Iveta Benesova. Laura made an impressive start to the game and easily won the first set 6-1 after just 20 minutes. The Czech player who is over 10 years older than Laura and is over 500 places higher in the world rankings somehow managed to fight back and overcome her dismal start to win the second and third sets off Laura 6-2 6-3.
In the gallery above the court, a number of players came out to watch. Robson has certainly provoked a little interest among the other players.
Perhaps in the juniors, Robson would then have cruised to the win, with the opponent fading away. But that is not the way that things work on the main circuit. And Benesova, who reached the third round of this year’s French Open, improved her game to register a 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 win.
Towards the close, Robson let out a scream of anguish, but she restrained from throwing or smashing her racket.
Laura won’t be going home just yet though. She still has her first round doubles match to play, not only that, she’ll be staying to watch how the other players in the tournament train and prepare for their matches.
Links:
Fortis Championships image gallery
Telegraph.co.uk
The draw for the Fortis Championships in Luxembourg was released today, and it was revealed that Laura will be making her WTA debut against Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, ranked #42 in the world. 25-year-old Benesova has won one WTA title in Acapulco back in 2004. Should Laura win her match she’ll go through to play the winner of Anna Chakvetadze (seeded #2) and Mathilde Johansson.
Additionally, Laura is teaming up with Gisela Dulko of Argentina for the women’s doubles. They will play the #3 seeds Vera Dushevina of Russia and Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine.
Laura Robson entered at #550 in the world rankings for the WTA tour yesterday. Head over to the official WTA tour site to see the table.
In terms of national rankings, Laura’s entry currently makes her the British number 13 (out of 29 players).
The Independent has published a nice article about Laura’s ever-increasing rise in the world of tennis, due to her continued success in recent tournaments. It’s a pretty lengthy article and is quite an interesting read, discussing her recent games, her fame, and her home education. Check it out at Independent.co.uk.
In other news, you’ve probably noticed we’ve got a brand spanking new design up on the website. It’s completely custom made and unique to us. We hope you like it - feel free to leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.
Laura Robson has been given a wild card entry to the Fortis Championship, held in the Grand Duchy in Luxembourg on October 20th. The list of entrants this year include the likes of Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva, Daniela Hantuchova, Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mauresmo. Imagine if Laura had a first round match against one of them!
This will be Laura’s first tournament on the main WTA Tour - the three tournaments she played recently were on the ITF circuit, which are ‘below’ the main tour.
“Robson’s management team at Octagon plainly believe that she is already good enough to be tested on the WTA Tour”
…
“Robson has not just impressed with the way she has struck the ball; she has also carried herself well on and off the court. Robson’s agent, Abigail Tordoff, confirmed last night that her client is scheduled to play in the 32-woman draw in Luxembourg.”
There are rules in place to prevent young girls like Robson from joining the adult tour full-time, such as the limit on the number of tournaments a 14 year old can play in one season - that number will increase when Laura turns 15 in January, but there will still be limits.
So Robson’s appearance in Luxembourg could well be her last senior tournament of the season, but she plans to continue playing on the girls’ circuit - and we wish her the best of luck with all her upcoming games.
Related article: Telegraph.co.uk
Angelique Kerber has beaten Laura Robson in the first round of the Barnstaple Open, 7-6 (8) 4-6 2-6. The German made an aggressive start to the match quickly gaining a 3-1 lead. Robson fought back to level it at 3-3, and then it went to a tiebreak. Robson used her impressive forehand to win the tiebreak 10-8.
Kerber and Robson were pretty even then until halfway through the second set, where Kerber picked up momentum. Carrying this through to the final set she won 5 straight games to build up a 5-1 lead. Robson managed to take a game back before Kerber served out the match.
Still, it’s not all bad news for the Brits, four of the women made it through to the second round - read about them over at LTA.org.uk.
Source: LTA
