Dog’s life for Laura Robson’s mum

Laura Robson has told her mother to stay at home and carry on dog-sitting rather than come to Wimbledon to watch her stunning performance.
Great Britain's Laura RobsonGreat Britain's Laura Robson
Great Britain's Laura Robson

Robson pulled off a terrific comeback on Saturday to beat Marina Erakovic and become the first British woman to make it through to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 15 years.

The 19-year-old has piloted her way through to the second week without the presence of most of her immediate family.

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Her brother Nick, who works at the All England Club during Wimbledon, was unable to watch her victory as he was working on Court 18, while mother Kathy was at home in Greece looking after the family’s pet labradors Ella and Kiri.

Robson, who has been wracked with nerves for large parts of her last two matches, would be forgiven for wanting to have her mother’s comforting presence at her side for the rest of the tournament, but she is happy to get by without her.

“I don’t think there’s any chance of her coming over,” said the British No.1, who has had father Andrew and sister Emily as ever-present support this week.

“I’m doing okay without her here. If she did come over then it would be a whole other situation – it would break your rhythm a little bit. You need to have the exact same thing all the time.”

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Robson initially struggled to deal with all that pressure on Court Two as she endured a wretched first set which was over inside 22 minutes.

The match then went from bad to worse for the Australian-born teenager as hard-hitting Erakovic broke serve early in the second set.

Robson showed mental toughness to bounce back, however, winning eight straight games on the way to securing a 1-6 7-5 6-3 win.

“I was getting my butt kicked basically,” Robson told the BBC.

“I was really struggling to return her serve.

“She is playing really well and I just thought I would try as best as I can, work as hard as possible, and just stick with it until she started to get nervous, which is what happened.”

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