| Friday, 4 July 2008 Written by Henry Wancke Britain's 14-year-old rising star Laura Robson continued to take every challenge in her stride - including a surprise underarm tactic by a frustrated opponent - to become the first home player to win through to the girls' singles final since Annabel Croft in 1984. The youngster delighted a packed Court 3 by producing, yet again, a gritty yet composed performance to beat Slovakian qualifier Romana Tabakova 6-2, 7-5 and show a growing audience of fans why she is the young female hopeful British tennis has waited so long for. The semi-final could not be described as a classic, but was full of incident, not least halfway through the second set. Robson had already taken the first set and had battled back from a break down to level the second when her opponent incensed the crowd by serving underarm on game point. Tabakova responded to the boos with an innocent "who me?" smile and admitted after the match she had practised the shot, because she always had a problem playing against left-handers. "You have to win the point," she added, disagreeing that the crowd turned against her at that point. "The crowd was always with Laura," she insisted. The opening set had been most notable for how quickly Robson met the expectations of the fans who had come to see the new "wunderkid" of British tennis. She broke at the first opportunity, when her opponent double-faulted on a break point. She then raced to a 5-2 lead, barely making an unforced error and looked comfortable playing from anywhere on the court. At almost every opportunity, she went for a winner - trying to find the furthest margins of the court against an opponent who often seemed content to keep the ball in play and prolong the rallies. Having earned three set points, she made a rare error on her first when she came forward to meet a ball but placed her shot into the net. A second set point for the Britain was lost when a Tabakova shot just about clipped the baseline, despite a plaintive "out" call from some in the crowd. But at the third opportunity Robson wrapped up the set, with her return landing too close to the Slovak for Tabakova to deal with it effectively. Her ball found the net and the young Briton was halfway to victory after just 27 minutes. Tabakova then requested a bathroom break requiring the 17-year-old to push through the packed crowds and absent herself from the courts for a long five minutes. Robson remained quietly in her chair focusing on the task in hand, as the photographers collected plenty of excellent snaps of the rising star. The break did seem to affect Robson, for it was Tabakova who opened up more strongly to gain the initiative with a break but after the fifth game the Slovak suddenly called for medical attention to her cramping legs. Again Robson was forced to sit quietly in her chair as her opponent received ice treatment to the upper part of her legs but, on resumption, she struck back to break the Slovak to love and level at 3-3. Then came that underarm tactic - but amid all the growing drama there was a 14-year-old keeping her cool and just keeping up the pressure on her opponent. Eventually, when Tabakova offered her a break and match point with a double-fault, it was snatched up with a driving return forcing a weak backhand reply into the net. Robson's victory was marked by the photographers requesting her to pose with arms in the air, much as a boxer would following a win. She duly complied, albeit somewhat nervously, and then got down to the business of signing autographs. Not for her a quick flourish of a pen at a couple of programmes - Robson took her time and patiently responded to dozens of requests. Robson now has the chance to follow her idol Martina Hingis - who won her first junior title in 1993 at the age of 13 - into the Wimbledon annals. To join her heroine on the list of winners, Robson has to get past Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, the Thai 17-year-old and third seed who eliminated the Belgian Tamaryn Hendler in straight sets.
| Court 3 - Girls' Singles - Semifinals | |
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Match Statistics
