Top 20 breakthroughs in professional tennis circuit this year: Part Nine – Tennis Special
7. Laura Robson (the Great Britain)
She might be merely 18-year-old but the fame she has already gathered this year is merely a dream for most of the youngsters of her age. Laura Robson has been the real heartthrob of Britain women’s tennis this season and she comes
at number seven in my list of top-20 breakthroughs of the year.
Right from the beginning of her junior career, everyone knew that there was something special about the 5ft 11in Brit teenager. Her aggressive approach towards the game and agile footwork at such young age is surely a naturally
gifted talent to Robson. She is at the very beginning of her professional career and has to go a long way before she could stand as a true representative of her county on the WTA Tour.
Robson turned pro in 2008 and it took her almost four years to break into the Top-60 women tennis players in the world. Her improvement this year has been absolutely phenomenal, as she leapt forward 74 places in the WTA Premier
Rankings to become the number one British tennis player. She took off the 2012 WTA season from number 131 and currently holds the 56th spot in the women’s world rankings. It hasn’t been an easy voyage for the Brit teenager, as she laboured extremely
hard to make a place for herself among the competitive professional tennis players.
The 18-year-old didn’t have an ideal start to the current season, suffering an opening-round exit from the Australian Open. She cleared the qualifying draws of the Grand Slam Down Under comprehensively but couldn’t perform in the
main draw, falling to the former world number one Jelena Jankovic. Her bad patch continued in the WTA events in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami and Copenhagen, losing her early round matches in dismal manner but her rankings kept on climbing steadily.
Robson had her luck running in the ITF (International Tennis Federation) tournaments but couldn’t do well on the elite WTA Tour. She was ejected in the opening round of the French Open as well, losing to Anabel Medina Garrigues
in straight sets, followed by another initial blow in the first round of the Wimbledon Championships on her home ground.
The British tennis sensation had her first breakthrough of the season at the WTA Tour event in Palermo, where she beat the odds by defeating the second seed Roberta Vinci and the fifth seeded Carla Suarez Navarro en route to the
quarter-finals. She fell to the eighth seeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the round of eight.
Robson truly stunned every tennis fan with her eye-startling performances at the US Open Championships. The Brit teenager holds the uniqueness of defeating the legendary Grand Slam winner and the elegant Belgian veteran, Kim Clijsters,
in her last match of the professional career. Robson defeated Clijsters in the second round and then went on to upset the former French Open champion, Li Na, in the a gruelling three-setter. She eventually lost to the Aussie number one, Samantha Stosur, in
the fourth round but her voyage in New York propelled her to the world number 74 rank.
Robson had a golden opportunity in Guangzhou, China, where she player her first WTA Tour-level final against Su-Wei Hsieh but let her maiden championship title slip out of her finger after suffering a three-set defeat. Her most
recent runs clearly hint that the Briton has picked up her form and she might become a strong force in the coming season.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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