Robson wins 6-0 6-4. Just checked the rankings out today and they have her at 36. Next highest ranked 94 born girl is at 138. Amazing

Disappointed that Laura v Melanie Oudin is not on a televised court (second match court 7)

Missing results:

Dan Cox won 62 46 62
Michael T lost 61 62
Dan Smethurst won 63 63

Tara/Heather won their doubles
Mathew James/Matthew Short lost to the second seeds

Greenleaf wrote:

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Laura's ranking is brilliant, but be realistic in one thing - she's older than almost every player in her year who's capable of challenging her talentwise, which is the biggest reason behind her being so ahead of the so called pack.

I'm more impressed about how well she does against girls capble of winning at Tour/Challenger level, like Oudin or Broady.



Shame that you guys can't watch her. But it's to be expected because no one in Britain cares about Juniors.

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You're right but she's only 2 months older than Mestach and Gavrilova, probably her two biggest rivals in the 1994 year. Nastja Kolar is also a good player born July 1994 but I don't see her being ranked in the top 40 in 6 months. She may be one of the oldest of the '94 girls but she's also the best (at least right now).

Greenleaf wrote:

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Yes, no denying that she would have been the best even if they all were of the same age! But not by this much, I'm sure.

Jessica Ren can progress a lot but that'll take some time as she doesn't train full time. Can't complain about that as I have no right to...

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True, but can't take away from the fact that she's the youngest girl in the top 100.

Good to see Windley, a qualier, beat Vandeweghe. I love it when these overrated (albeit mega talented) foreigners like her and Boluda who get wild cards in Britain are thumped (not that Coco was thumped). Should teach the AELTC a lesson about how much tennis they know.


Second round :

Marcus Willis [24] vs. Hiroyasu Ehara [81] of Japan
Daniel Evans [49] vs. Guillaume Rufin [15] of France
Niall Angus [61] vs. Grigor Dimitrov [13] of Bulgaria
Daniel Smethurst [41] vs. Bradley Klahn [17] of the USA
Daniel Cox [58] vs. Andrew Thomas [39] of Australia

Laura Robson [36] vs. Melanie Oudin [2] of the USA
Johanna Konta [11] vs. Jade Windley [568]
Naomi Broady [740] vs. Zarina Diyas [42] of Kazakhstan


-- Edited by Greenleaf at 06:30, 2008-07-01

I was at Wimbledon yesterday and managed to see a few of our juniors. I was impressed by what I saw.

First up it was Jade Windley. I didn't catch much of this match, it was more a case of glancing out the window every now and then as I ate lunch, however she looked more impressive than her opponent, and I had no clue that she'd had to qualify, so well done her!

Later in the day I glanced over at court 19 and (from quite some distance) declared "I think that might be Laura Robson" a quick check of the OOP (and a small wondering about how much of a tennis freak it makes me to be able to recognise our players from about 30 metres when I have quite poor eyesight) and I discovered it was indeed Laura. Great though my view of the court was (I was above it) I didn't have a view of any scoreboard so I had no idea about the scores, and I couldn't hear the umpire either. However, I watched anyway. I saw Laura lose serve a couple of games in (and get quite annoyed with herself, in a positive way I felt) and then come back out and immediately break back, resulting in a couple of fist pumps. Her serve was good, and penetrating (not sure on speed, I found it hard to judge) but it was erratic at times and she did throw in some wild mistakes. However this should be easily corrected with time, just as long as it is corrected. In terms of groundstrokes, they were good, again penetrating and she was constructing points and not simply hitting it back. She wasn't afraid to come into the net and so did so on a number of occasions. At this point I turned away for about 30 secs and when I glanced back the court was empty so I didn't know who won. However, I was pretty sure it would've been Robson and coming home found that that was the case.

Next up on that court was Dan Smethurst. By this time the doubles match on Court 14 was really engrossing (Benneteau/Mahut v Erlich/Ram 5 sets) and so I only glanced at Smethurst and my view was more obstructed. What I did see I was impressed with. Smethurst always looked in control when I was watching and his on court demenor seemed great, really positive and assured. I didn't see the end of the match (had to go back to centre for a certain Mr. M) but based on the body language I was pretty sure Dan was winning and I'm glad to see that was true.

Thanks for that, Bethan. Especially for the description of La Robson's game.


No, Madeline, not normally. But we did have more than this last year - 7 boys and 3 girls.