Now it’s frustrated Robson’s turn to face hip surgery

FORMER British No 1 Laura Robson is to have a hip operation next week in the latest setback for her career. Somewhat poignantly, the 24-year-old left-hander will have surgery almost exactly 10 years after she rose to prominence by winning the Wimbledon junior title aged 14. Robson has been plagued by problems to her right hip since early this year, and was reduced to only playing doubles in recent grass court tournaments. She has not played a singles match since early May, and her ranking has slipped to 351, although she remains in the top 150 for doubles. Sources close to the player have confirmed that she will have keyhole surgery just days after the start of Wimbledon next week. She began to be hampered by the issue when playing in Australia at the start of the season, and months of physiotherapy and an injection have failed to cure the problem. With echoes of the Andy Murray situation, she has taken the option of having an operation after other avenues were exhausted. Robson will face months of rehab work after the procedure, but unfortunately she is no stranger to that after wrist problems seriously interrupted her career. In a recent interview she pledged that she was not yet ready to give up on tennis, saying: ‘I love playing, that is what keeps me going. Like other players with injury problems, I believe I am good enough to get back up there. ‘Have I thought about packing it in? Everyone has those thoughts in their job sometimes. I am not ready to stop yet. It has been difficult because I have had a hip injury since January. Every time I thought I was getting going, it restricted me again.’ Robson reunited last year with Martijn Bok, the Dutch coach who guided her to that Wimbledon title 10 years ago. She went on to win an Olympic silver in the mixed doubles with Murray in 2012 and reach a career-high ranking of 27 a year later at just 19 years old, collecting the scalps of several Grand Slam champions such as Kim Clijsters and Petra Kvitova. She also made the fourth round of Wimbledon that year. Not long afterwards she began to struggle with soreness in her wrist, and that culminated in two separate operations that effectively kept her out of the sport for the best part of two years. She played doubles at the Nature Valley Nottingham Open earlier this month, but the Wimbledon committee did not feel her fitness was good enough to give her a wildcard, and now she faces another lengthy spell on the sidelines.