Robson stops British rot after beating 10th seed Kirilenko to join Murray in round two
By MIKE DICKSON
|
Five years after she won junior Wimbledon on the same Court No 1, Laura Robson produced another stunning result as she scored a dramatic upset win over world No 10 Maria Kirilenko.
The Wimbledon-based teenager kept her composure in the face of a late revival from the far more experienced Russian to win 6-3, 6-4 and put another home win on the scoreboard for Britain after Andy Murray
'That was a big one for me after all the nerves,' said Robson, who again showed that she loves nothing more than a big stage to perform on. Kirilenko joins a growing list of big-name scalps in the Grand Slams over the past twelve months: Li Na and Kim Clijsters at the US Open and Petra Kvitova at the Australian Open.
Fist pump: Laura Robson is through to the second round after winning her opener in straight sets
That's how you solve a problem like Maria: Robson saw off her Russian opponent 6-3, 6-4
There was some wonderful hitting from the back court that kept Kirilenko, who reached the last eight of the French Open and is having her best year on tour, rocking back and flailing away at penetrating groundstrokes on the slick grass court.
Court No 1 really got behind Robson, who arrested a poor sequence of results from GB players that has previously seen them win just one set between them, Murray apart.
As Virginia Wade commented, 'Kirilenko wouldn't have expected to get a drubbing like this from anybody but someone like Serena.'
It was a nervous start from both players with no rhythm to the match until Robson suddenly stepped it up and reeled off a series of winners to break for 5-3 and then closed the set out without much ado.
All smiles: The British No 1 celebrates her first-round victory over the 10th seed at Wimbledon
She was utterly dominating the world No 10 with clean, early-struck groundstrokes that saw her to 4-1 up in the second. It was all backed up, crucially, with rock sold serving that was yielding minimum double faults.
Kirilenko is not world No 10 for nothing, though, and she began to mix up her game more and put pressure on the Wimbledon-based teenager, whose ball toss began to err, a sign that the tension was growing.
But Robson held her nerve to serve the match out at 5-4, slightly shanking a last forehand into the corner to clinch the victory. She now plays Colombian qualifier Mariana Duque Marino-Marino.
Eye on the ball: But Maria Kirilenko was soundly beaten by Robson
That's handy: Robson joins Andy Murray as the only British players to make it through to the second round
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-2348217/WIMBLEDON-2013-Laura-Robson-beats-Maria-Kirilenko-round.html#ixzz2XGq3hexR
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
