Laura's Right to Play charity video

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

Laura's Right to Play charity video

Josh · Challenger level

Interview with Laura, where she calls the other players sluts!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1282592/Laura-Robsons-verbal-volley-sluts-ladies-tennis.html

Ratty · County player

Yes, one cannot expect a 16 year old to know the ways of the world, but it really is remarkably stupid of her family/advisers to let that remark be published.

In a close-knit community like pro tennis players, the goodwill (or at least the absence of ill-will) of your fellow competitors is extremely important, and I would imagine that this remark will really p*ss off a few people.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

this was obviously the article Laura was referring to in her twitter this morning, she said something like "very pleased with the shoot, unhappy they took some of what i said outta context"

Maza1987 · Challenger level

One of the commenters posted
"so its okay to be a slut if you are discreet?...I'll keep that in mind in future"

lol.
This was a slip up by laura and it will not go down well.

I think we can call this her first big media mistake. And surely not the last.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

Oh what a surprise, it's the Daily Fail. Having thoroughly stabbed the footballers in the back they've decided a change of sport is in order?

Maza1987 · Challenger level

^not really, mate.
If she said theyre sluts. she SAID theyre sluts.

its just a mess-up which she will learn from.

And are you talking about the lord triesman thing, cause that was the news of the world.

-- Edited by Maza1987 on Sunday 30th of May 2010 08:11:42 PM

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

no the triesman thing was definitely the Mail on Sunday

Maza1987 · Challenger level

The Knight wrote:

no the triesman thing was definitely the Mail on Sunday

I must be getting mixed up with the John Higgins sting. smile

That was the NOTW, I believe.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

I posted this on AM.com

It's the first big media mistake of her career, and I dearly hope she learns from it like Andy did. I don't want her to become one of those players that gets involved in the cattyness that goes on in the wta tour. Players like Rezai, bartloli, jankovic et al are constantly angering me with their comments about other players. It leaves a distate in the mouth.

Moreover, I appreciate Laura wants to be like sharapova and Ivanovic, but please dont forget, they actually won grand slams first. Laura, leave out the vogue shoots until you're a proper star.

I'm saying it like it is.

Peter too · Tennis legend

I think I would need to see the original interview live to pass any judgement. I am all too aware of how tabloids can lead someone on, print phrases out of context and even edit video interviews in the cutting room to MAKE the story THEY want to tell in order to sell papers. What she needs to learn from this is not to do interviews with the Daily Fail.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

She did the interview with Vogue - the newspapers just picked up select parts of it. Until the full thing is published, we won't know if her comments are about the newspapers taking bits of the Vogue interview out of context or the Vogue reporters taking her words out of context, but my money is on the former.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

I like this approach to the story - we'll have her back when its blown over!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Having read the full transcript of the interview it is clear from the tone of the piece that the Vogue journalist had taken an instant dislike to Laura. Hence the negativity shown throughout the article. The journalist was clearly looking for a slip up from Laura which eventually came with the use of the word 'sluts'. There were alot of inaccuaracies in the piece highlighting the poor quality of the journalism.

Most of the time Laura comes across as a charming young lady interspersed with occasional examples of brattish behaviour and in this case her use of the word 'sluts'. Her work with the charity Right to Play is a good example of what type of person she is. But she is only 16 and will learn from this experience . She will probably look back in a few years time and actually agree it proved to be a character building experience. I see Laura as a bit of a free spirit and it would be a shame if she went into her shell as a result of this episode.

Finally I think it is time to draw a line under this episode and focus back on her tennis which is in good nick at the moment. Hopefully the distractions that this episode will clearly have caused won't impact upon her performances in the next month.

links to full article http://img13.imageshack.us/i/lrobsonvogueuk10jula.jpg/
http://img441.imageshack.us/i/lrobsonvogueuk10julb.jpg/

steven · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
Having read the full transcript of the interview it is clear from the tone of the piece that the Vogue journalist had taken an instant dislike to Laura. Hence the negativity shown throughout the article. The journalist was clearly looking for a slip up from Laura which eventually came with the use of the word 'sluts'. There were alot of inaccuaracies in the piece highlighting the poor quality of the journalism.

Most of the time Laura comes across as a charming young lady interspersed with occasional examples of brattish behaviour and in this case her use of the word 'sluts'. Her work with the charity Right to Play is a good example of what type of person she is. But she is only 16 and will learn from this experience . She will probably look back in a few years time and actually agree it proved to be a character building experience. I see Laura as a bit of a free spirit and it would be a shame if she went into her shell as a result of this episode.

Finally I think it is time to draw a line under this episode and focus back on her tennis which is in good nick at the moment. Hopefully the distractions that this episode will clearly have caused won't impact upon her performances in the next month.

links to full article http://img13.imageshack.us/i/lrobsonvogueuk10jula.jpg/
http://img441.imageshack.us/i/lrobsonvogueuk10julb.jpg/

I can imagine Laura is capable of rubbing up people the wrong way but this journalist should be ashamed, trying to trip up a 16-year-old like this - it's even worse than the 'Murray hates England' nonsense, since when she's just starting out on the circuit, the last thing she wants is something like this causing friction for her in the locker room.

No doubt quite a few female tennis players are what she probably meant by 'sluts' (if she actually used that word) and no doubt lots of the male tennis players are too, not least because it must be very difficult to keep relationships going when you're travelling around the world all the time. It sounds to me like Laura wasn't trying to have a dig at the other girls, she was just trying to point out that, like Muzza, she's a lot more serious about her tennis than some.