Rob McLean - Hard yards ahead for Robson and Murray
Whoever advises Andy Murray and Laura Robson will have their work cut out over the next few weeks as they try to make an impression on the grass courts.
The early season fun of the Hopman Cup where they reached the final amid affectionate mickey-taking, seems a long time ago. It is all deadly serious now for two players that we carry our long-term hopes.
Murray, after a few choice expletives, is out of the French Open in what is becoming an increasingly familiar pattern in the latter stages of Grand Slams, while Robson's family would have been choking on their cornflakes as they digest remarks she made in Vogue magazine.
The rain interruptions played their part in leaving the British No 1 looking tired and bewildered. Murray was just getting back into the match against Tomas Berdych when he was forced off court and then came back to finish in near darkness.
To his credit he admitted that he had been well beaten. Back in 2001 his predecessor, Tim Henman, had more reason to rage at the Gods when his Wimbledon ambitions were derailed by the rain as he led Goran Ivanisevic by two sets to one in the semis.
For Berdych, Paris 2010, read Roddick, Wimbledon 2009; Gonzalez, Paris 2009; Verdasco, Melbourne 2009; Cilic, New York 2009. Will the misery ever end? Frustratingly, all these players, none of whom look like ever winning a Slam (Roddick won his only one to date in 2004), produced arguably their greatest performance of their careers against Murray.
Murray will regroup and should fare better on the green grass of home, hopefully retaining the Queen's title which would be his first title since November. Then there is the worry about his knee; for Robson it is the lower part of the leg, as in putting her foot in it.
In an interview with Vogue, Robson, among other things, described most of her tennis rivals as ''sluts who go with everyone''. Obviously it was a tabloid's dream comment but why Robson was doing the interview in the first place posing like a catwalk model, beggars belief.
What she said isn't the end of the world; why would anyone think a player of 16, who hasn't won a match on the main tour, justifies a piece in the iconic publication?
A salutary lesson for the Australian-born Brit as she makes her way in the game is Ana Ivanovic (and a few others), a Grand Slam champion on the slide, whose career has been derailed as a result of spending too much time looking in the mirror. Robson has won junior Wimbledon, yes, but there are numerous British players who have done that and slipped into obscurity.
Robson has started her grass-court preparation early and, hopefully with a wild card at Wimbledon, will get a couple of good results. Some of her opponents will no doubt be highly-motivated!
Robson's insults were the tip of the iceberg last week at the French Open, but there is nothing on record yet about that Venus Williams' dress. Marion Bartoli, who burst onto the scene when she beat Justine Henin in the Wimbledon semi-finals but has done little since, got the ball rolling with touch of the green-eyed monster regarding French rival, Aravane Rezai.
Rezai won in Madrid and Bartoli has been miffed that the Iranian-born Frenchwoman was getting all the headlines. Then came Dinara Safina, the former of lots of former No1s in the women's game of musical chairs who said the people who criticise her are 'jealous'.
Sadly Safina is deluded and showed just how stupid the women's rankings are when you can be No 1 without a Slam. Her defeat to a 39-year-old, Kimiko Date Krumm, making a comeback after 12 years summed it up.
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Date published :
02 Jun 2010 - 13:27:44
