LACKLUSTRE LAURA STUMBLES OUT
ABOuT the only thing loud about Laura Robson at this year’s uS Open was her pair of Day- Glo orange shoes, and yesterday she beat a subdued retreat against Li Na.
There was to be no spectacular knocking over of Grand Slam champions on this visit and she fell to a 6-2, 7- 5 third- round defeat against the world No 5 after briefly threatening in the second set.
For the Chinese there was a measure of revenge in reversing the scoreline of the same match at the same stage 12 months ago, when Robson dispatched both her and Kim Clijsters.
Expectations were relatively low, however, for Robson this week and she can regard making the round she was seeded for as a satisfactory outcome.
Arriving with few matches behind her, having not long had her right wrist in a cast, she has, at least, largely defended her ranking points from a year ago and will probably remain in the top 40.
She can certainly be pleased with making the last 32 or better in three of the four majors this season.
Robson said: ‘ I’m disappointed and I could have played better but, overall, I’m going in the right direction and my overall game is improving.
‘I will have a bit of rest now and let my wrist settle down completely and I’ve also got to have my wisdom teeth out. Some of the girls in the locker room have been giving me scare stories about it but I don’t think it will be too bad.’
There were positive signs in the first two matches in her movement and construction of points, but she could not muster the consistency to topple this much more solid version of Li Na.
If Robson was to gain another eyecatching win at a Grand Slam she was going to need the platform of a strong service performance and that never materialised.
No aces and five double faults pretty much illustrated that and in the first set there was an alarming lack of control of her potent forehand, which repeatedly landed long.
After a 29-minute opening set she played much better and, with more ruthlessness, she should have taken the second.
With the radar finally working on her groundstrokes she pulled ahead for 3-0 and had the Chinese player at 30- 0 down on her serve before losing the next six points, a sequence that ended with the break being handed back.
With Li Na’s serve yielding 11 aces, there were no further openings. Robson was broken to go 6-5 down before the match ended in an hour and 21 minutes.
Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki later went down 6-4 7-5 to Ekaterina Makarova.