THE Laura Robson bandwagon has reached the end of the line.
The 18-year-old has arrived on the world scene in New York this week, the teenager thrilling this tournament with back-to-back victories against Kim Clijsters and Li Na en route to becoming the first British woman since Jo Durie here in 1991 to reach the last 16 of a grand slam.
But her attempts to continue her startling journey into the quarter- finals at Flushing Meadows ultimately went off track when reigning champion Sam Stosur, 10 years her senior, showed enough steel to grind out a 6-4, 6-4 victory. While Stosur is a native of the Gold Coast, Robson left Melbourne at the age of six to travel to England. This was either an all-Australian derby or an Ashes match-up, but it was Robson's hopes which were cremated.
With a place in the last eight on the line, no quarter was asked for or given. With victory, Robson would have become only the third woman in history, alongside Clijsters and Serena Williams, to have knocked out three grand slam champions in successive rounds – not to mention the first Brit in a major quarter-final for nigh on 30 years – and it seemed like an entirely plausible outcome when she typically grasped the early initiative, breaking for 2-1 with a blistering forehand which Stosur got her racket to, only for it to spin into the crowd.
Hold her serve, and her nerve, and things might have been so different, but in a matter of minutes the teenager had failed to consolidate the break and the world No.7 had been allowed to recover parity again at 2-2. The remainder of the set went with serve, thanks in no small part to Robson squandering a break point chance at 4-4, too eagerly snatching at a return as she chased a smart, high-kicking serve from her opponent.
In the very next game, the pressure finally started to tell. After saving two of three set points, an untimely double fault handed her opponent the first set. It was an advantage she would never concede.
Further tantalising openings for Robson came and went at the start of the second set when the 18-year-old was unable to capitalise on three break points. Stosur, a grown woman with the kind of movement and conditioning that Robson can aspire to as she works with Andy Murray's fitness coach Jez Green, on the other hand, was clinical; when one came her way in the set's fourth game she gobbled it up. There must have been every temptation for the 18-year-old to enter stroppy teenager mode, but she kept the shrieking to a minimum.
At 2-5, pure adrenalin was keeping the teenager in it. At one moment she was scooping a tame drop shot into the net, at another producing gutsy tennis to saving no fewer than five match points. There was a genuine outpouring of emotion from the crowd when a Stosur forehand was shown by Hawk-Eye to have dropped millimetres beyond the baseline and her charmed life continued for one more game. Or so we thought. Because Stosur just couldn't get rid of Robson.
The Australian didn't fare any better with her sixth and seventh match points, Robson saving them as she ripped into a couple of sensational returns and before long the 28-year-old was trudging back to the corner, her serve broken at the crucial moment. But when the balls were in Robson's hands she discovered that the pressure had shifted. After saving match point No.8, her ninth life was to prove her last one, even a net cord unable to save her as one last forehand went long. The stats told their own story: Robson had served only two aces and made 41 unforced errors.
The match was played on the Louis Armstong arena, named after the jazz musician who lived nearby. To borrow from one of his most well-known songs, Robson has all the time in the world.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article