Injury woe forces Robson to retire
Former prodigy hangs up racquet aged 28
NEArLy half a lifetime has passed for Laura robson since she caused a minor sensation by winning the junior Wimbledon event at 14. Five years later in 2012, when she successively knocked Grand Slam champions Kim Clijsters and Li Na out of the US Open, there seemed even fewer limits to what she might accomplish.
Many injuries later, she confirmed yesterday what most people in the game already assumed — that she was formally retiring in the wake of her latest hip surgery. She had not played a competitive match in more than three years.
‘It feels weird to say out loud, but I’m done, I’m retired,’ robson told the BBC, for whom she now works in one of her roles as a broadcaster.
‘I think I’m always going to have the feeling that I could have done more, unfortunately. I feel like if I had just had another year or two of being healthy, I don’t know what I could have achieved.
‘It’s the difficulty of having it taken away from you rather than deciding yourself, as I would absolutely love to be out there still.
‘But ultimately what’s happened has happened, and I think overall I’m a much nicer person from going through all of that. If I keep looking back and thinking “what if”, then I can’t move forward.
‘I’ve sort of known that for a while because of what I was told by the doctors last year, but I think it just took me so long to say it to myself, which is why it took me so long to say it officially.’
A left-hander, raised in the UK by Australian parents, robson possessed a rare ball-striking ability which enabled her to generate easy power. That was demonstrated by the illustrious victims she collected en route to peaking at No 27 in the world in 2013.
Venus Williams and Petra Kvitova were other past major winners she defeated before being hit with a catalogue of injuries that began with wrist problems that required surgery the following year.
To fully exploit her extravagant hand skills — which also brought her a mixed doubles Olympic silver medal with Andy Murray — she would have needed the same monastic approach to fitness training as her Scottish partner. Her natural athleticism was never the equal of her natural timing and, being something of a free spirit with an independent mind, the grind required for the tour did not always appeal in the same way. In the long run, the attendant pressures of having announced herself to Wimbledon at such a young age (left) were never going to make fulfilling her potential straightforward. And that was without a set of hips that sadly ended up needing three operations, the first of which came in 2018. The same freedom of thought, which made the restrictions of the pro lifestyle somewhat cloying, will serve her well as she further establishes her place among the prominent ex-players in the TV studio and commentary booth.
● PLAYER bodies in tennis took their first step last night to back away from a confrontation with Wimbledon over the banning of russian players.
The men’s ATP Tour announced they would not strip the UK’S pre-SW19 grass-court events of ranking points, despite the likes of world No 2 Daniil Medvedev being barred from entering.
It means Queen’s and Eastbourne will operate as normal without the risk of star names deserting them. That suggests they may also do the same for Wimbledon — although with a prize pot of around £40million there is no chance of players staying away.
However, the men’s tour said all options remain on the table. They also made clear they reject the principle of russians and Belarusians being responsible for the sins of their governments. The decision over Wimbledon is still under review, and a fine remains a likely outcome for the LTA. The women’s WTA Tour is due to communicate further with its members tomorrow.