Laura Robson must now return to the world of reality. From the excitement of an Olympic final and the prize of a silver medal from Mixed Doubles, the 18 year-old from Great Britain must now get back to her day job of improving a WTA singles ranking that currently stands at 89th position.
Robson had other prizes from the Olympics yesterday, a nine-place jump in the WTA rankings courtesy of her first round singles win over the vastly more experienced Lucie Safarova. The former Wimbledon girls champion more than acquitted herself in Centre Court battles with French Open champion Maria Sharapova at singles and Victoria Azarenka, the current world no.1 and Australian Open champion as well as Samantha Stosur, US Open champion.
When asked what she had learned about herself in the course of the Olympic Games, Robson said: “Just that I like playing on big center courts with crowds like that. And I really enjoyed playing so many of the very top players. I’m getting my ranking up in singles, so hopefully I’ll be playing them more often.”
Robson will leave London today, destined for Cincinnati where she will contest the qualifying rounds of the Western and Southern Open where the only wild card into the main event so far awarded have gone to Americans Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens and Camila Giorgi.
After that Robson intends to contest the New Haven Open and the U.S. Open. With much pride she declared: “I’ll be entering the US Open as a direct entry for the first time, which is pretty cool.”
Robson spent yesterday with her Team GB and British Fed Cup team-mate Anne Keothavong watching Olympic gymnastics before heading to Heathrow Airport but she remained hugely in debt to Olympic singles champion Andy Murray who chose her as a Mixed Doubles partner when he had the pick of all Britain’s female players.
“Playing with Andy was great,” she enthused. “I said thank you to him for playing with me because it’s just been one of the best weeks of my life. I think anything is anti-climactic after the Olympics. This week has been a lot to live up to.”
©Daily Tennis News Wire
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