Britain’s Laura Robson Is Gearing Up For 2013

Written by: Staff on 16th November 2012

Britain’s Laura Robson Is Gearing Up For 2013

epa03381133 Laura Robson of Great Britain hits a return to Samantha Stosur of Australia during their match on the seventh day of the 2012 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 02 September 2012. The US Open runs through Sunday 09 September 2012. EPA/JASON SZENES |

The curtain for the 2012 tennis season will officially be brought down once the last ball is struck in this weekend’s Davis Cup final but at much the same time Laura Robson, widely regarded as the young lady most likely to succeed in 2013, will begin her travels for the new year.

Robson’s first tournament of 2013, at Shenzhen in China, is only a month and a half away and the Australian Open comes soon after. Right now the British 18 year-old tipped for great things by both Chris Evert and Billie Jean King after ousting former Grand Slam champions Kim Clijsters and Li Na at the US Open is midway through a six-week training block, more intensive than anything she has experienced before.

So far all of the work has been done in the early winter gloom of London at the Lawn Tennis Association’s National Tennis Centre at Roehampton but on Sunday, together with her coach Zeljko Krajan and newly appointed fitness trainer Dejan Vojnovic (a former Olympic sprinter for Croatia), she will fly to Florida for three weeks of hard work at the Chris Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton.

“I’m in week three of my winter training block and with another month to go I’m hoping to be super-fit in Melbourne in January,” said Robson who currently stands in 53rd place on the WTA world rankings.

Robson’s Roehampton regime, under Krajan who previously worked with former world no.1 Dinara Safina and the Czech Dominka Cibulkova, has been tough. She rises at 7.45am, warms up until 9am, plays until 10am, works on fitness for an hour from 11.30am, has lunch, then goes back to the court between 3.30pm and 5.30pm. “After tennis I’ll do another gym session or recovery – and I’m doing ice baths almost every day. So, they’re long days. I get home very tired in the evening.

“Towards the end of the season, Zeljko knew I was getting really tired and I wanted to come home, but he pushed me a bit harder. I think it makes a difference. So far, he’s pretty relaxed with me. Hopefully I haven’t stressed him out too much.”

Robson, who is in bed by 9pm most nights, might have made even quicker progress in her career but for a succession of injuries – many associated with growing pains – in the years after her 2008 Wimbledon junior win. It was no coincidence that her impressive form this year coincided with her first injury-free spell of any length.

“Last year I went into the Australian Open with virtually no practice because I was on crutches until two or three weeks before,” she explained. “This is basically the first full training block I will have done, because most of the time I’ve been injured at this time. So I’m hoping for good things in Australia.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Australian Open, British tennis news, Laura Robson, Li Na, Robson, Sports, Tennis News