Laura Robson vows to learn from Andy Murray after she’s sent crashing out at Roland Garros

James Olley
2 Jun 2009

Laura Robson has vowed to learn from Andy Murray's adaptation to clay after crashing out of the girls' singles in the second round.

The 15-year-old lost to Sandra Zaniewska of Poland 7-6, 1-6, 6-3 after one hour and 54 minutes of highly competitive tennis at Roland Garros.

At two years her senior, Zaniewska had much greater strength from the back of the court than Robson but the Briton fought valiantly only to come up short in a tense final set.

Murray, who faced Fernando Gonzalez on Court Philippe Chatrier this afternoon, has honed his game on the slower surface after spending time at a clay-court training camp in Barcelona as a teenager and that is a route Robson intends to follow.

The top seed said: “I hate losing so it's never easier or worse than anywhere else. Andy struggled on clay when he was younger and now he is in the quarters. So I am going to try and do the same as him and keep improving.

“She [Zaniewska] hit a lot of drop shots and that's how she won a lot of points. That was her tactic the whole match and it worked.

“I ran a lot and now I am pretty tired. I tried my best and at times I could have served better and done a couple of things better but at the end of the day I tried my best so there wasn't much more I could do.

“Once you get the ball it's hard to know where to hit it because if you hit it short, she is going to read it so you have to think about where you are going to hit it as you are running and hitting the ball.

“By the final set I was extremely tired of running.”

Robson battled back from a break down in the opening set to force a tie-break. Zaniewska had the first set point on serve at 8-7 but Robson produced a superb return and forehand winner to draw level.

She then earned a mini-break to force a set point of her own only to serve a double fault.

Zaniewska eventually took the breaker 12-10 but Robson raced through the second set in just 27 minutes to level the match.

But Zaniewska's superior stamina eventually won through and Robson, who will now focus on taking two English GCSE's, admitted: “She is definitely more physically developed but I don't think age matters unless they are a whole lot more experienced. She was a lot stronger.”

Robson must now wait until next Monday to find out if she has done enough to earn a main draw wildcard into the Wimbledon women's singles from the All England Club.

Meanwhile, Robin Soderling proved his victory over four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal was no fluke as he comprehensively beat No10 seed Nikolay Davydenko to become the first man into the semi-finals.

The Swedish No23 seed was in dominant mood throughout, breaking the Russian six times, and finished the match with his fourth ace to seal a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 victory in just one hour and 41 minutes.

A stunned Davydenko said: “I really don't know what I can say about the match. He played well here first of all. If I tried to play well, he just played much better.

“I tried to get some control from the baseline, play some long rallies and make some topspin, but he just hit along the lines and made many
winners. I was surprised.”

Murray will face Soderling for a place in the final should he beat Gonzalez this afternoon.
In the women's draw, top-seed Dinara Safina came from a set down to defeat 19-year-old Victoria Azarenka and reach the French Open semi-finals.

The Russian was given the runaround in the first set and was at one stage being held at 4-4 in the second, but recovered her poise to eke out a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory on Philippe Chatrier Court.

Ninth seed Azarenka, from Belarus, was not overawed in the slightest and played an almost perfect first set, which lasted just 23 minutes.

Safina broke in the third and fifth games of the second set, and would have been given further encouragement when Azarenka slammed her racquet down in disgust the moment she went 4-1 down.

The teenager fought back superbly to make it 4-4 but Safina rallied again to break and then hold to take the set.

Azarenka dropped serve in the first game of the third set and world number one Safina, who has yet to win a grand slam, finished the stronger to wrap up victory in an hour and 52 minutes.

Court shorts

* Serena Williams has waded into the debate over the quality of women's tennis compared with their male counterparts. Jelena Jankovic claimed the men's play is superior but the younger Williams hit back with a vociferous defence of the WTA Tour. And what was her reasoning? “Women's tennis is way cattier, so it's way more exciting to watch. So clearly women's tennis is better than men's tennis. There's no comparison. Women are just cattier in general. It's the truth. Ladies are so passionate about whatever we do. Maybe we have more passion and that makes it more intense.”

* Perhaps not unrelated to the above, the tantrum of the tournament' award so far must go to Ksenia Kirillova, of Russia. The
15-year-old blew a set advantage to No4 seed Timea Babos in the girls' singles to lose 7-5 in the third yesterday. And after greeting her defeat by throwing her racket to the ground, she picked it up only to smash it down again, startling a ball girl. She then hit it against her seat before jamming the offending item in her bag and storming off court, hiding her face in her towel. Classy.