Fourteen-year-old Robson Caps Amazing Week with Wimbledon Girls Title

Still no power, if you can believe it, but I managed to get to a computer to listen to Guy McCrea's calling of the Robson win over No. 3 seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn for Radio Wimbledon. He and his partner did a masterful job of analysis while keeping their heads about them. Guy tells me the match was broadcast live throughout Britain on BBC 1, so don't expect the excitement over her win to die down any time soon. (Unforunately there's not nearly the interest over there in the boys final, which will be played AT THE SAME TIME as the Federer - Nadal clash.) Here's Guy's report and his interview with Robson:

(NOTE: Quicktime, a media player available via a Free Download is required to hear the audio clips.)

The penultimate day of Wimbledon 2008 saw the girls singles final take pride of place on the world-famous Number One show court. Britain’s Laura Robson carried the hopes of a nation on her fourteen year old shoulders as she took on the third seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn.

Robson started the title match well and raced into a 3-0 lead as she struck a succession of clean winners – particularly off her forehand wing. Lertcheewakarn started to find better angles on her double-fisted groundies but she was still unable to prevent the Brit winning the opener 6-3 to the delight of the eleven thousand capacity crowd.

It looked like Robson might wrap up a straight sets win when she went an early break up in the second. But Lertcheewakarn then began to find the form befitting of her world junior number five ranking. She also capitalised on a cluster of Robson groundstroke errors to win the set 6-3 and level the match. It was the first one Robson had dropped all week.

But a major reason why many seasoned observers believe Robson will achieve great things in the women’s game is because of her maturity in the face of adversity. That quality was certainly in evidence in the decider. She went an early break up, was broken back, but managed to hold serve in game 5 despite heavy pressure from Lertcheewakarn. It turned out to be a crucial moment as Robson broke the Thai’s vulnerable serve again, before serving out the final set 6-1 to bring an end to Great Britain’s 24 year wait for a junior Wimbledon champion.

She told me afterwards what it felt like to win the title.

FOR ROBSON AUDIO CLICK HERE

On reading the above, you might be forgiven for thinking there was no other junior tennis taking place at Wimbledon on Saturday. But there certainly was, as the junior doubles semi-finals were played out on courts 2 and 18. In the boy’s event, the Australian third seeded duo of Matt Reid and Bernard Tomic outlasted the Belgian fifth seeded pair of Alexandre Folie and David Goffin in the early evening sunshine. Reid and Tomic will now meet Cheng-Peng Hsieh and Tsung-Hua Yang in Sunday’s final after they also won in three sets earlier in the day against Mirza Basic and Di Wu.

Over in the girls’ doubles, Jocelyn Rae and Jade Curtis lined up for the last four having already upset the fourth and fifth seeded pairings earlier in the competition. The British duo also looked on course for a final berth when they won the opening set 6-4 against the sixth seeds Polona Hercog and Jessica Moore. But Rae and Curtis were punished for failing to convert a plethora of break point chances in the second set as the Slovenian-Australian partnership levelled the match by winning it 6-3. They then just about did enough to edge the decider 6-4. Moore and her partner are obviously delighted to reach the girls’ doubles final.

FOR HERCOG-MOORE AUDIO CLICK HERE

Hercog and Moore will face the Australian duo of Isabella Holland and Sally Peers in the final after they won a hard-fought contest against Japan’s Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara by 9 games to 7 in the final set.

Sunday’s action sees both those junior doubles finals take place on court 2, as well as the boy’s singles final on Number 1 court.

Radio Wimbledon will provide live ball-by-ball commentary of that title match between Finland's Henri Kontinen and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. To listen, please visit the following link: Wimbledon Radio

Play on Number One Court starts at 2pm British time, with the boys’ singles final scheduled as the first match on the order of play.