Robson Is Ailing With Chest Infection

Written by: Staff on 19th February 2013

Robson Is Ailing With Chest Infection

epa03543960 Laura Robson of Great Britain hits a backhand during her 3rd round match against Sloane Stephens of the US at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 19 January 2013. EPA/Narendra Shrestha |

Britain’s Laura Robson, designated by Billie Jean King and Chris Evert as one of women’s tennis future megastars, is struggling with a chest infection that is affecting her performance.

The 19 year-old from Wimbledon, who ousted world no.8 Petra Kvitova at the recent Australian Open to add to the notable scalps of Kim Clijsters and Li Na she collected at last year’s US Open, revealed she has been affected by the viral infection since last year’s Olympic Games.

In her last two tournaments Robson has suffered first round defeats, last week in the Qatar Total Open to veteran Daniela Hantuchova and yesterday in the Dubai Duty Free Championships to fellow teenager Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan. “It’s just something that I’m living with,” Robson said.

“I’m seeing a specialist when I get home and we will make another decision then. It was on and off since the Olympics, now it’s worse.”

Robson has refused to compromise her training schedule because of the virus. She endured her toughest off season training with the Croatian partnership of coach Zelko Krajan and fitness trainer Dejan Vojnovic at Chris Evert’s academy in Boca Raton before Christmas and has been practicing hard in the Arabian Gulf for the last fortnight since representing Britain in the Fed Cup.

She refused to use her illness as an excuse and said: “I just want to keep practicing, no matter where it is and start finding my timing a bit better.

Robson appeared to have played herself back into a winning position against Putintseva, battling back from a 5-2 deficit in the final set to lead 6-5 but then lost out in a tiebreak.

“It was just annoying for me, because I feel like I have been practicing a little bit better this week, “ said the world no.43. “To come out on court and just feel very, very defensive the majority of the match is really disappointing.

“I’ll analyze it. I analyze all my matches. You have to try and learn as much as you can from one of them, even though some of them can be really bad. You just have to learn from them and work a bit harder.”

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Australian Open, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Kim Clijsters, laura roboson, Li Na, Petra Kvitov, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News