Laura Robson battles past Samantha Crawford to reach round two – US Open 2012
World number 89, Laura Robson, ousted the 393rd ranked American qualifier, Samantha Crawford, in the opening round clash of the US Open; dispatching, a year younger contender, in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(5).
It was not a straight forward contest for the 18-year-old Briton, who was expected to hammer the qualifier because of her extraordinary skill level at such a young age. The match was evenly poised throughout the proceedings and
swung both ways before it was finally clinched by the deserving left-handed teenager.
Robson commenced the match with an outstanding ace and continued to show her class during the early phases of the competition. She was ruling the show but was not able to extract a breakthrough.
Nothing changed for the first few games before a series of break points were witnessed at the hard courts of New York. The Briton did well to grab two back-to-back breakthroughs and saved three successive breakpoints in the final
game of the opening set to steal the first phase of the match.
The second set started brilliantly for the American teenager who broke her rival’s serve to take an early lead in the set. She was leading the scores 3-0 at one stage of the set before an onslaught from the Briton stole her lead
away and equalized the scores at 3-3.
An aggressive game plan was obvious from both competitors in the dire situations of the contest. They were not willing to slow the tempo of the game and therefore no drop shots were witnessed. Robson was obviously more talented
than her rival and she kept on exerting pressure but the American qualifier was firm with her serves and didn’t allow any chance to her foe to take any sort of lead in the second set.
No breakthroughs meant a tie-breaker was to be enforced to separate the two athletes and the big booming cross court winner from Robson helped her to steal the second set triumph as well. It was a classic battle between the two
fresh blooded tennis professionals.
Laura Robson contests her second set battle against the 23rd seed Belgian star, Kim Clisjters.
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