Laura Robson in action at Wimbledon, London, England - 5th July 2012
Laura Robson was born 21st January 1994 in Melbourne, Australia. The Australian born British tennis player is the no.2 ranked female player in Britain. Laura and her family moved from Melbourne to Singapore when she was 18 months old, and then to the United Kingdom when she was six.
Laura entered a junior tennis academy at the age of seven. She signed with management company Octagon when she was 10, with Adidas at age 11, and also signed a racket deal with Wilson Sporting Goods.
Robson's first tournament on the junior International Tennis Federation (ITF) tour was in May 2007, where she went from the qualifying draw of the tournament to the quarter-finals. She reached the final of two other tournaments in 2007, and won her first tournament in October.
Robson competed in her first junior grand slam at the Wimbledon girls' event in 2008, as an unseeded player, aged just 14. As the youngest player in the tournament, she beat first seed Melanie Oudin on her way to the finals, where she defeated third seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn. Her victory made her the first British player to win the girls' event since Annabel Croft in 1984. Robson then went on and turned professional in 2008.
Her first match on the WTA tour was courtesy of a wildcard into the 2008 Fortis Championships in Luxembourg City.
Robson returned to the junior tour for the first half of 2009. On 9th June, Wimbledon announced that Robson received a wildcard for the Ladies' Singles event at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. She faced former World No.5 and 2002 Wimbledon quarter-finalist Daniela Hantuchová in the first round but lost.
Robson began 2010 playing with Andy Murray in the Hopman Cup, as part of Great Britain's first team in the tournament since 1992. Robson and Murray made it to the final of the tournament, but narrowly lost to Spain's Martinez Sánchez and Tommy Robredo.
On 21st September 2010 Robson announced that she was to split with her coach Martijn Bok. In 2011 Robson hired a new coach, Frenchman Patrick Mouratoglou, and moved her working base to Paris, but her season was disrupted by injury.
Robson has appeared at least once in the main draw of every Grand Slam, with her biggest success coming at the 2012 US Open where she made the fourth round. In doing so, she became the first British woman since Samantha Smith at Wimbledon in 1998 to reach the fourth round of a major tournament. At the 2012 Guangzhou Women's Open, Robson became the first British woman since Jo Durie, in 1990, to reach a WTA main-tour final, before losing to Hsieh Su-wei in three sets.
Laura Robson of Great Britain posing for a picture before the official team dinner on 5th February 2013 at the Sport Hotel in Eilat, Israel, ahead of their Fed Cup Group B matches.
Laura won a silver medal playing with Andy Murray in the mixed doubles at the 2012 London Olympics.
In August 2012 Robson changed coaches once more. Željko Krajan a Croatian tennis coach and former professional tennis player began coaching Laura.
She was named WTA Newcomer of the Year for 2012 and along with Heather Watson, won 'Young Sportswoman of the Year' at the 2012 Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards. She was also nominated for Sports Journalists' Association 'Sportswoman of the Year' and the William Hill 'Sportswoman of the Year.
At the start of 2013 Robson reached the top 50 for the first time in her career. She followed this with her first victory at the 2013 Australian Open with a convincing straight sets victory over Melanie Oudin. In the second round she played former Wimbledon champion, and fellow left-hander, Petra Kvitová. Robson came back after losing the first set to beat Kvitová in a three-hour match, to set up a third-round meeting with Sloane Stephens. After stopping for several shoulder treatments, Robson was eventually beaten in two sets.
Last week at Miami in the singles Robson reached the second round before losing to Alizé Cornet. In the doubles Laura Robson was given a wildcard to play with American Lisa Raymond. The pair reached the Sony Open Women's doubles final, beating the World No. 1 pairing of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in straight sets in the semi-finals, before losing to Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik in yesterday's final.
The results as this tournament saw Robson reach career-high singles and doubles rankings of 42 and 90 respectively.
Laura Robson attends the Burberry Spring Summer 2012 Womenswear Show at Kensington Gardens on 19th September 2011 in London, England.
Laura Robson - Biography
Born: 21st January 1994 (Melbourne, Australia)
Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Plays: Left-handed
Coach: Zeljko Krajan (since September 2012)
Fitness trainer: Dejan Vojnovic (since November 2012)
Trains at: National Tennis Centre, Roehampton,
UK Highest Singles Ranking: Highest ranking: No. 42 (1st April 2013)
Highest Doubles Ranking: No. 90 (1st April 2013)
Racket: WilsonBrand partners: Wilson, adidas, Virgin Active
Prize money to date: $634,872.
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