Britain ’s Top Two Women Players Are Moving Up

Written by: Staff on 27th September 2012

Britain ’s Top Two Women Players Are Moving Up

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 |

Britain’s two young female stars are serving notice they intend to enhance their reputation in 2013.

Laura Robson caught the tennis public’s attention by ousting Grand Slam champions Kim Clijsters and Li Na at the recent US Open before reaching last weekend’s final in Guangzhou and Heather Watson gave world no.2 Maria Sharapova a major scare in this week’s Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo .

And the two youngsters are the using the success of each other to drive themselves up the WTA rankings. “I think it’s great, Laura’s doing well and I hope we can both push each other along,” said Watson who this week in Tokyo ousted 2011 Wimbledon semi-finalist Sabine Lisicki. “When she sees that I do well, I hope that pushes her as well and when I see her do well, that definitely pushes me.

“When one does well, then the next time, the other one does well too. So it is good and I’m glad that we can push each other along because we’re both very competitive. We both want to do well, when we see the other one doing well.”

Watson, at 20, is a year and a half older than Robson but the younger player is currently on top in the ranking race, going up to a career high 57 after reaching the Chinese final while Watson is currently 78^th in the world .

Recently Robson has taken the majority of the attention, winning Olympic silver in the Mixed Doubles alongside Andy Murray before her impressive run at the US Open that caught the eyes of the likes of Billie Jean King and Chris Evert. But both are former Junior Grand Slam winners; Watson winning the US Open and Robson a champion at Wimbledon .

“It doesn’t matter to me but things like that happen and the media always chooses somebody to pin their hopes on,” continued Watson. “Right now that’s Laura, obviously. But I just want to focus on my tennis and let that do the talking.”

Channel Islander Watson is viewed as more of an American product and has been based at Nick Bollettieri’s academy in Florida since she was 12, while Australian-born Robson has trained mostly in Britain . Watson is currently coached by the Colombian Mauricio Hadad, while Robson works with the Croat Zeljko Krajan.

Both are due to contest the China Open in Beijing and Robson said: “With a few more good wins I should be in the top 50 so I’ve got to keep working hard.

“I think I’m playing pretty well, I feel confident at the moment even though I lost today. I’ve got qualifiers in Beijing , and it’s going to be tough there as it is one of the top tournaments of the year.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: British tennis news, Heather Watson, Kim Clijsters, Laura Robson, Maria Sharapova, Sports, tenni news, Tokyo tennis news, Toray Pan Pacific Open, women tenni snews