Robson beat tenth seed Maria Kirilenko
Laura Robson had barely wiped the sweat off her brow before she was being backed to do ‘something incredible’ at this year’s Wimbledon by the last British player to win here.
Virginia Wade, who took the women’s singles title in 1977, could barely contain her delight as British number one Robson beat tenth seed Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-4 in stunning style.
Wade insisted she didn’t want to pressurise the young 19-year old – an Olympic mixed doubles silver medallist with Andy Murray last summer – but then did just that by tipping her to do more ‘damage’ in the days ahead.
But Robson, who faces Colombian qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino in the next round, was not getting carried away.
“Virginia always gets quite excited, doesn’t she?” she said.
“I thought I could win but I didn’t expect to win.
“I’d love to win a couple more matches, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I think the next one is going to be really tough, so I’m just focusing on that.
“I’ll be taking it match by match, as I said before the tournament.”
Robson has claimed prize scalps at Grand Slams before – notably major winners Kim Clijsters and Li Na at last year’s US Open.
And winning at the All England Club is no new feeling either, with a girl’s singles title from 2008 and last year’s Olympic success on her resume.
“I didn’t think about the Olympics here last year,” she added.
“That was an amazing two weeks that gave me a lot of confidence but I today I just tried to play my own game. I wanted to dictate from the start and I managed to do that.”
But Robson is the only British woman to progress to the second round, following world number 54 Heather Watson’s 6-3, 7-5 defeat to Madison Keys and wildcard Tara Moore’s 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 loss to Kaia Kanepi in two hours and 34 minutes.
Moore was making her All England Club debut but was the only home women’s player other than Robson to win a first round set – Elena Baltacha, Johanna Korte, Anne Keothavong, Samantha Murray all lost in straight sets on Monday.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray won’t be back on centre court on Wednesday after organisers decided the second seed’s match with Yen-Hsun Lu should be played second up on court one.
Photo courtesy of Carine06, with thanks.
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