Читать книгу Laura Robson - The Biography - Tina Campanella - Страница 13

That night, Laura changed out of her tennis whites into a classy short black satin dress. She slipped a pair of hot-pink high heels onto her usually trainer-clad feet. She had chosen the dress that morning from a selection of 150 laid out by Wimbledon dresser Elizabeth Piner, in the changing rooms at Centre Court.

As Wimbledon’s newly crowned princess, she had been the first to pick out her outfit and she wanted to look chic and grown up for her first big ball. Photographers clamoured for her attention as she arrived at the Inter-Continental Hotel on Park Lane. With her chestnut locks falling in ringlets to her shoulders and her long legs suntanned from a life spent outdoors, she looked stunning – a girl on the very cusp of womanhood.

She grinned broadly for the cameras, before going inside to be congratulated by every tennis idol she had ever dreamed of meeting. It was a fairytale night, and one that didn’t end until 2am for the tired teenager. But in the newspapers the next day, everyone who was anyone had something to say about Robson – and not all of it was simply gushing praise.

While tennis fans were busy renaming Henman Hill ‘Robson’s Ridge’ in honour of her triumph, a host of more seasoned tennis pros were discussing her future more carefully.

Venus Williams was rooting for Robson, and offered her some wise advice: ‘I think it is amazing what she has done. I hope that she continues to develop,’ she said. ‘It’s so important to develop your game during the stage in her career that she is at now. Winning is awesome but really developing your game is the vital point. I hope that she and everyone around her focus on that.’

Tim Henman was particularly impressed with Laura’s handling of the media, and pointed out just how important that aspect of the game is.

‘You hear her speak off the court and she’s very self-assured and knows what she’s on about,’ he said. ‘She looks like she’s got some real potential.’

And Britain’s last Wimbledon women’s champion Virginia Wade, who lifted the title in 1977, said: ‘I’m really proud of her for what she did on Saturday, and I do think she’s got what it takes.’

But Annabel Croft – who had last won the Wimbledon girls’ title in 1984 – was more cautious in her praise. She reminisced about her own career beginnings, and offered some tips for her young successor in the Daily Mail.

‘Laura’s game is already so smooth, complete and accomplished,’ she wrote. ‘While I have little doubt that Laura is at the beginning of an extremely promising career, I also know she will have to deal with things few 14-year-olds have to face, and handle pressures most adults rarely experience.

‘Tennis beats you up emotionally and places enormous demands on you… One of the hardest things you have to come to terms with as a player is the realisation that your weaknesses are on display for everyone to see every time you are on court.

‘It honestly felt like the end of the world every time I lost a match. I felt like I was riding a rollercoaster and I had no perspective.

‘What I didn’t realise then, but I do now, is that tennis is not the whole world. And I hope Laura knows this too.’

Laura was now in training not just for tennis super-stardom, but also for a life that would be spent largely in the public eye. She had been given some media training by a few well-chosen Sky Sports reporters, but interview questions could be unpredictable and embarrassing. Everyone agreed she had a strong head on her shoulders and a supportive family behind her, which would certainly help with the years she would now undoubtedly spend in the limelight.

But there were concerns that Laura would never have a normal teenage life. Instead of being surrounded by gossiping schoolgirls, all with different hopes and dreams, Laura would be bonding with fiercely ambitious girls who all wanted the same thing – tennis glory.

She would spend most of her time with coaches, fitness trainers, physiotherapists, nutritionalists, sponsors, lawyers and the flighty media, all of whom would be older than her. Dating would be nearly impossible and the international tour could be a lonely and soulless place.

And with so much pressure on her young shoulders it would be easy to quickly burn out, instead of moving onwards and upwards.

‘Is Laura ready for that?’ mused Croft. ‘From what I’ve seen she certainly has what it takes. I wish her the best of luck.’

They were wise words, from a woman with the wisdom and experience to know what she was talking about. Laura, her family and her coaches were thinking exactly the same thing.

Laura’s coterie agreed that she shouldn’t be over-exposed after the veritable avalanche of publicity that had greeted her victory, and as a result she would be sitting out the under-18 US Open competition that would take place at Flushing Meadows in September.

In essence, she wouldn’t be going after another junior Grand Slam title so soon after her Wimbledon win – a sensible precaution that fitted in with the new age restrictions brought in by the WTA Tour, designed to prevent the well-known ‘burn-out’ of teenage prodigies that had prematurely ended so many promising careers. History is littered with their tragic tales.

In 1979, Tracy Austin became the youngest ever US Open champion, beating Chris Evert at the age of just 16. A year later, she became world No. 1, before defeating Martina Navratilova in an infamous tiebreak at the US Open in 1981. But back injuries, the result of years of intense training while she was still growing, forced the pig-tailed blonde to retire at just 21.

In 1985, a severe shoulder injury ended the startlingly successful early career of American Andrea Jaeger, before she had even turned 20. As a teen she had terrorised the tour, winning ten singles titles and earning more than $1.4 million in prize money and millions more in endorsements. She is now a nun.

Jennifer Capriati was the youngest player ever to break into the world’s top ten, doing so at the age of 14. She won Gold at the 1992 Olympics, but struggled to cope with the resulting pressure to perform and took time out from the game the following year. Her struggles during that time were well documented by the press, and included arrests for shoplifting and possession of drugs.

Laura’s family and support network were keen to tread carefully in the next stage of her career – the tricky transition from juniors to seniors – in order to avoid a similarly devastating downfall.

‘The nicest thing for Laura would be that we can leave her alone for the next six months, so she doesn’t start walking with her head in the clouds,’ said Carl Maes.

To that end, she flew to Amsterdam the day after her win for three weeks of low-key, unofficial adult tournament play – more for practice than anything else.

On the way there, her celebrity presence was announced on the plane and Laura squirmed with embarrassment. ‘I was sitting right at the back and literally the whole plane turned and stared,’ she later recounted. ‘That wasn’t very fun.’

Laura didn’t want to be famous. She just wanted to be the best tennis player in the world.

After Holland, Laura took a break and went on a well-deserved family holiday, before returning to training in Britain, and to face a stream of inevitable questions from the media on when she would be playing next. The country was hungry to watch her progression, but Maes was guarded in his response to the onslaught.

‘It hasn’t been decided exactly where she’ll play,’ he said. ‘It’s sensible not to grab every opportunity that comes your way and take your time.’

Robson tried to get back into normal life after her stratospheric rise to the top. She was carefully shielded from the media and spent her time working on her form, playing with her dog and indulging in her passion for scary films. For the next few months, the media admired her from a distance, allowing her to embark on the quest for her first professional ranking points relatively unwatched.

She made her professional debut on the ITF women’s circuit with little fanfare, playing entirely unannounced at an obscure bottom-rung tournament in Limoges, France in September. She won two matches to qualify for the main draw and followed these victories with a first-round win against Alice Balducci from Italy – a player ranked 875th in the world.

With her first ranking points safely under her belt, she went on to play No. 2 seed Marina Melnikova, before having to retire at 2-4 down in the first set due to a shoulder injury.

While Laura was quietly beginning her senior career, the LTA were very publicly reaping the rewards of her Wimbledon win. Just weeks after the tournament’s end, they unveiled a £25 million sponsorship deal with Edinburgh-based insurance group Aegon, which was a huge indication of the renewed faith Laura had inspired in British tennis.

Robson was next given a wildcard into the main draw of a £40,000 ITF women’s tournament at Shrewsbury’s Welti Club – her first professional debut in Britain. It was a similarly low-key affair, but proved to be extremely valuable for Laura’s confidence and status.

Dressed in a pink-and-white top and grey skirt, and with her hair in a messy plait, her first round was watched by just 75 tennis enthusiasts. It was a far cry from the heady heights of Wimbledon. There were no ballkids, a skeleton line judging crew and no spectator seats in the hangar-like centre.

Instead, viewers had to crane their necks on the balcony to catch a glimpse of the British heroine in action.

But it was a perfect opportunity for Laura to hone her skills against more experienced and seasoned players – a well-thought-out dip of the toe into the shallows of the women’s tour before she turned 15 in January, and could go after her next big title at the Australian Open.

It was a tough match, against fellow Briton Sarah Borwell, who at 29 was nearly twice her age and ranked eighth in the country. But the tenacious spectators weren’t disappointed with her performance. Her handling of Borwell’s serve – previously timed at 120 mph – was outstanding, as was her refusal to give up when things got tough on court.

There were plenty of groans and self-scolding from the youngster, but she kept her focus and emerged triumphant, with a 7-6; 2-6; 6-3 victory over the older player.

Despite her defeat, Borwell was full of praise for Laura. ‘I know we tend to get excited about new players but I was impressed,’ she said after the match. ‘I lost to Ana Ivanovic in the second round of Wimbledon two years ago and Laura reminds me of her.

‘I thought I would be able to hit her off the court a bit but she moves well and sees the ball very early.

‘She hits very aggressively and that shocked me a bit at the start. After watching her matches at Wimbledon, I thought she might struggle against more powerful players but she has this awareness of where the ball is going. She also returns extremely well.’

But Laura did have an Achilles heel – one she struggled to hide from her opponents – and Sarah could see it.

‘Her attitude is the sign of someone who is going to get up there pretty fast,’ she said. ‘It depends how she handles the pressure but she expects a lot of herself, like all top players.’

Borwell’s insight was spot on – and plainly evident in Robson’s own analysis of her performance: ‘It was a tough match and I didn’t play as well as I would have hoped,’ she said. ‘But I’m looking forward to the rest of the week.’

Robson was ambitious and hated to make a mistake, however small. The pressure she was placing on herself was enormous and it was just as well that her coaches were keeping her as far removed from the public eye as possible.

The added pressure of huge publicity, at such an early stage of her transition to the senior circuit, could be disastrous.

Robson’s next opponent would be the girl she succeeded as Wimbledon girls’ champion: 17-year-old Urszula Radwanska. The highly rated Pole was on her way to breaking the top 100 after a steady and accomplished ascent on the senior tour.

One half of Poland’s answer to the Williams sisters – at the time her older sister Agnieszka was ranked 10th in the world and was herself a previous winner of the Wimbledon girls’ trophy – Urszula was a bright young thing on the circuit, progressing steadily and tipped for great success.

So, when 14-year-old Laura – essentially a younger, newer version of herself – began to steam ahead during their second-round match, Radwanska went to pieces. She began violently hitting her racket on the ground with such force it was a wonder it survived. But her display of anger didn’t help her game and Laura won 6-3; 6-3.

While Radwanska fumed to herself in consolation, Robson was diplomatic. ‘I was pleased with my performance,’ she said carefully. ‘Radwanska is a tough player so I knew I had to play a good match in order to win.’

Speaking in his role as head of the women’s game for the LTA, Carl Maes was more candid: ‘That can’t have been easy for Radwanska,’ he conceded. ‘Here she was losing to a 14-year-old. She got very upset. Radwanska probably wasn’t expecting to lose to someone younger than her.’

Laura had been playing exceptionally well, keeping her cool under extreme pressure and was through to the quarter-finals.

Her next opponent was just a little bit more terrifying.

Having served two years in the Israeli army, Tzipi Obziler was a tough, 35-year-old player not to be trifled with. She was old enough to be Laura’s mother, was ranked 120 in the world and had just represented her country at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing in both singles and doubles.

For this match, going under the radar was simply not an option. Word had spread that England’s sweetheart was flying through her first senior event on home soil and the media now wanted in on the triumph. When Robson began her quarterfinal face-off with Obziler, it was in front of a crowd of 200 and filmed by a handful of TV cameras.

Robson’s nerves must have been made of steel, because in little over an hour she had vanquished the veteran 6-3; 6-3. She was feisty, quick and almost faultless, pouncing swiftly to gain breaks and remaining composed throughout.

‘This match was the best of the three she has won this week so far,’ said LTA Head Coach Nigel Sears, who was clearly impressed. ‘She completely outplayed someone with a decent ranking, it was top quality. Laura showed remarkable composure and made scarily few errors – it was a very smart match she played.’

It was a good result for Laura, but an even greater one for the LTA. Despite the fact that Laura’s career had been developed independently of the British Tennis Association, Laura’s coach, Martijn Bok, was centrally funded, and Laura had the run of the LTA facilities to improve her game.

And it was a very different way of approaching training for the LTA, who had previously taken total charge of the most promising young players and sidelined their maverick parents completely. But Laura’s parents, (just like Judy Murray with Andy and Jamie) had gone their own way from the very beginning and produced great results – before eventually receiving financial help from the LTA to continue doing so.

For the LTA, Laura’s success was public proof that the governing body’s more open-minded approach to professional training was working – and they were pleased.

‘In 18 months I expect she will be playing on the main tour,’ Sears was quoted as saying.

‘She is far from the finished article but is developing fast, and it will be exciting to see when she is the finished article.

‘I’m not really surprised about anything she does any more. It’s down to the hard work she has already put in and her level of strength and fitness tells you that fitness trainer Steve Kotze is doing good work with her day in, day out.’

Robson was playing at the standard of someone around the top 100, despite the fact that she hadn’t even played enough tournaments yet to officially rank at all. If anyone had been wondering, it was now obvious that Wimbledon hadn’t been a fluke. And there was further proof in the fact that Britain’s Elena Baltacha and Katie O’Brien – both established top 150 players and ranked two and three in the country behind No. 1 Anne Keothavong – were already out of the tournament in which she had thus far survived.

It was a phenomenal achievement.

But, in the semifinals, Robson finally ran out of steam. After losing in three sets to second seed Maret Ani from Estonia, Laura was philosophical. ‘I can cope with playing at this level, but they have more experience,’ she admitted.

‘I can definitely play with them,’ she repeated. ‘It’s just a question of getting the experience.’

Time was on her side.