Robson faces Serena in the qtr final if she wins her next match (assuming Serena will win hers), it doesn't really matter if Robson loses at that stage, she's never got beyond the 2nd round before this year and that was only once. It's been a remarkable tournament for her already. Hopefully Serena will be past it by the time Robson's ready to challenge for majors
She was absolutely great yesterday, she seems a grounded girl with a bit about her too, I'm becoming a bit of a fan. As she's already exceeded all expectations, she'll come out of this event a winner, whatever else happens.
I caught the deciding game of that Williams first set and she didn't even look like she was trying. She hit one ridiculous double fault which looked more like a schoolkid's serve than a world number one.
Serena has a long track record of not performing at her best all the time. Sometimes she just loses focus and has a bad 10 minutes, sometimes it's a whole set, and occasionally it's a match-long shocker. She seems to have woken up now - which is a shame, as I backed Lisicki at 12.5/1 when it was 1-1 in the first.
Robson's out. She can hold her head high though - she has shown guts and determination throughout the tournament, she will certainly benefit from this and will only improve. Well done Laura.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but why is the generally accepted reaction to defeat so different in tennis to in football? If England (football) get knocked out early in a tournament everyone goes on about how little they care for the team and they're all **** anyway plus we don't train them well enough when they're young like the Germans do. In Tennis, losing is greeted with sympathy and consolidation. The same goes for other sports too really, it's just football where everyone goes over the top desperately looking for reasons.
I'd assume it's because we all want to smash Laura Robsons back doors in and the England football team are a bunch of dicks?
People believe that the England football team is full of world class players who are capable of winning competitions, so that when they dont it is seen as failure. Whereas our tennis players are, on the whole, the whipping boys/girls of the tennis world so that when they get to the 3rd round etc of an open tournament they are seen to be exceeding expectation so it is no surprise when they get beaten by a higher seed
Because the England football team are considered of a good enough quality to do well, whereas the tennis players are generally poor.
That argument would stand up, except that when England do fail, everyone claims they aren't any good and at the same time say they don't care, so which is it? If they really are that **** then surely it's the same scenario as Robson in Tennis and like her they should be sympathised with and supported? It's not just England either. When we lost at Barnsley everyone was damning the players saying they didn't even try, couldn't be arsed etc. No one even considered that maybe they did try, and wanted it just as much as we did, but Barnsley were better than us on the day.
Because people don't care enough about tennis to be truly pissed off or elated. It's just 'oh good, she won' or 'oh well, not bad'. Rather than the love/hate emotions that come with football.
I think that's a part of it, the other is that the tennis players, and tennis in general is a tournament for individuals from nations rather than an international competition. So an English lass did her best, but the English team represent the nation so WE fail.
Also, Robson is 19 and it's the first time she's got this far - further than her ranking says she should - so it's only fair to cut her some slack. If she loses to an unseeded player in the fourth round in 3 or 4 years' time I'm sure we'll all be less forgiving.
