Greg Rusedski says "this could be the most interesting Wimbledon yet” for the six-strong squad of British female tennis players including Laura Robson.
Laura Robson has already achieved one of Rusedski’s stated priorities by breaking into the world’s top 100 players Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND
By Oliver Brown
Rusedski’s enduring passion for British tennis is self-evident. On his mentoring days at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, he is reputedly the first to turn up and the last to leave.
Enlisted by the Lawn Tennis Association on a four-year deal to develop the top national prospects from the ages of 15 to 18, the former British No 1 responds with a rare dedication - a product, he claims, of his resolve to 'give back’ to the country that afforded him his first chance in the game.
As a commentator, critic and now coach, Rusedski has reinvented himself as an uncompromising voice of his sport. While he derived kudos from his surge to the 1997 US Open final, not to mention his five last-16 appearances at Wimbledon, his greatest talent could yet lie in galvanising the next generation.
His contribution to inspiring Kyle Edmund, Evan Hoyt and Luke Bambridge to last year’s Junior Davis Cup triumph in Mexico signalled a most auspicious start.
The 38 year-old, born in Montreal, is a man of strident opinions, not afraid to declare that Britain should be more ambitious in expecting excellence from its tennis prodigies or in seeking to elevate more players to the world’s top 100.
His arguments acquire particular resonance for the women’s contingent, where the successful transition from junior to senior levels is rarely accomplished and where a first-round decimation on the lawns of Wimbledon has become almost a traditional annual ritual.
Laura Robson was the sole second-round survivor 12 months ago, succumbing narrowly to Maria Sharapova on Court One despite having split from long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou only a week earlier. Once more, she finds herself the standout hope among the British women at SW19, saddled with the expectation of a public that still vividly recalls her junior Wimbledon glory aged 14.
“I’ve been impressed with how well Laura has matured,” Rusedski says. “She is that rare species: an exciting young talent who has gone on to perform consistently.”
Even so, Robson argued this month that, at 18, she has felt hampered by her rapid physical development. She is four inches taller than when she won the Wimbledon girls’ title in 2008 and insists she has not completed the training she would have wished due to her growth spurt. The encouragement is that, upon starting this summer’s tournament, she has already achieved one of Rusedski’s stated priorities by breaking into the world’s top 100 players.
“Laura, with her attitude and ability to dictate play on court, has the ability to climb even higher,” he predicts. “The one concern is that she stays healthy.”
Heather Watson, her doubles partner and sidekick away from tennis, faces a more uncertain path. Where Robson has demonstrably improved her serve, Watson’s remains woefully under-strength - a significant handicap in the women’s modern power game, as illustrated by the 6-0, 6-2 swatting she suffered at the hands of Victoria Azarenka in Melbourne.
The Guernsey native is also without any 'go-to’ shot with which to trouble the elite, and yet what she lacks in raw inspiration she offsets with lung-bursting effort. “The guarantee with Heather is that you will always receive 110 per cent,” Rusedski explains. “She only knows how to play one way, and that is aggressively. She’s a natural athlete and moves beautifully. At 20, she’s also still undergoing a growing process, but the fact that she has qualified for two slams this year is promising.”
Anticipation mounts that Watson can advance this fortnight beyond the opening round, where she suffered a tearful three-set defeat to Sweden’s Mathilde Johansson last year. But any such prognosis for Elena Baltacha, increasingly the elder stateswoman of the British sisterhood at 28, is fraught with problems. According to Rusedski, “it is all about the draw for Elena.
She has reached the second round on five occasions, but hasn’t won a grand slam match in 2012 and has fallen back outside the top 100. I sympathised with her at the French Open, where she was drawn first up against Sam Stosur, a great clay-court player, and was a set and 4-0 down before she could blink. She needs some luck this time.”
So, too, does Anne Keothavong, who has endured a chequered few months, tumbling out of the top 50 and withdrawing from her Australian Open match against Mona Barthel due to food poisoning.
She has only ever won six matches at the slams in her entire career, reaching the high-water mark of the third round at the US Open in 2008, but harbours fond memories of Wimbledon after her second-round appearance alongside Venus Williams on Centre Court four years ago.
“Anne has not the best of grass-court practice, losing early at Edgbaston and Eastbourne,” Rusedski says. “But she is a fighter. And for her, the priority is more to make the British Olympic team, given that her brother James is going to be one of the umpires.”
Britain’s six-strong women’s division at Wimbledon is fleshed out by Naomi Broady, the Under-18 champion whom Rusedski admires for her courageous vanquishing of Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia in the first round last year, and fellow wild card Johanna Konta.
The inclusion of Konta is intriguing, given that the Australian-born 21 year-old has only been a British citizen for four weeks. But Rusedski, who similarly did not adopt citizenship until 1995, has seen sufficient quality from the youngster to convince him that she can carry the British flag effectively.
“She’s a rapidly improving player and she’ll be good for the others to have around,” he says. “For our girls this could be the most interesting Wimbledon yet.”
Laura Robson has already achieved one of Rusedski’s stated priorities by breaking into the world’s top 100 players Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND
By Oliver Brown
Rusedski’s enduring passion for British tennis is self-evident. On his mentoring days at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, he is reputedly the first to turn up and the last to leave.
Enlisted by the Lawn Tennis Association on a four-year deal to develop the top national prospects from the ages of 15 to 18, the former British No 1 responds with a rare dedication - a product, he claims, of his resolve to 'give back’ to the country that afforded him his first chance in the game.
As a commentator, critic and now coach, Rusedski has reinvented himself as an uncompromising voice of his sport. While he derived kudos from his surge to the 1997 US Open final, not to mention his five last-16 appearances at Wimbledon, his greatest talent could yet lie in galvanising the next generation.
His contribution to inspiring Kyle Edmund, Evan Hoyt and Luke Bambridge to last year’s Junior Davis Cup triumph in Mexico signalled a most auspicious start.
The 38 year-old, born in Montreal, is a man of strident opinions, not afraid to declare that Britain should be more ambitious in expecting excellence from its tennis prodigies or in seeking to elevate more players to the world’s top 100.
His arguments acquire particular resonance for the women’s contingent, where the successful transition from junior to senior levels is rarely accomplished and where a first-round decimation on the lawns of Wimbledon has become almost a traditional annual ritual.
Laura Robson was the sole second-round survivor 12 months ago, succumbing narrowly to Maria Sharapova on Court One despite having split from long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou only a week earlier. Once more, she finds herself the standout hope among the British women at SW19, saddled with the expectation of a public that still vividly recalls her junior Wimbledon glory aged 14.
“I’ve been impressed with how well Laura has matured,” Rusedski says. “She is that rare species: an exciting young talent who has gone on to perform consistently.”
Even so, Robson argued this month that, at 18, she has felt hampered by her rapid physical development. She is four inches taller than when she won the Wimbledon girls’ title in 2008 and insists she has not completed the training she would have wished due to her growth spurt. The encouragement is that, upon starting this summer’s tournament, she has already achieved one of Rusedski’s stated priorities by breaking into the world’s top 100 players.
“Laura, with her attitude and ability to dictate play on court, has the ability to climb even higher,” he predicts. “The one concern is that she stays healthy.”
Heather Watson, her doubles partner and sidekick away from tennis, faces a more uncertain path. Where Robson has demonstrably improved her serve, Watson’s remains woefully under-strength - a significant handicap in the women’s modern power game, as illustrated by the 6-0, 6-2 swatting she suffered at the hands of Victoria Azarenka in Melbourne.
The Guernsey native is also without any 'go-to’ shot with which to trouble the elite, and yet what she lacks in raw inspiration she offsets with lung-bursting effort. “The guarantee with Heather is that you will always receive 110 per cent,” Rusedski explains. “She only knows how to play one way, and that is aggressively. She’s a natural athlete and moves beautifully. At 20, she’s also still undergoing a growing process, but the fact that she has qualified for two slams this year is promising.”
Anticipation mounts that Watson can advance this fortnight beyond the opening round, where she suffered a tearful three-set defeat to Sweden’s Mathilde Johansson last year. But any such prognosis for Elena Baltacha, increasingly the elder stateswoman of the British sisterhood at 28, is fraught with problems. According to Rusedski, “it is all about the draw for Elena.
She has reached the second round on five occasions, but hasn’t won a grand slam match in 2012 and has fallen back outside the top 100. I sympathised with her at the French Open, where she was drawn first up against Sam Stosur, a great clay-court player, and was a set and 4-0 down before she could blink. She needs some luck this time.”
So, too, does Anne Keothavong, who has endured a chequered few months, tumbling out of the top 50 and withdrawing from her Australian Open match against Mona Barthel due to food poisoning.
She has only ever won six matches at the slams in her entire career, reaching the high-water mark of the third round at the US Open in 2008, but harbours fond memories of Wimbledon after her second-round appearance alongside Venus Williams on Centre Court four years ago.
“Anne has not the best of grass-court practice, losing early at Edgbaston and Eastbourne,” Rusedski says. “But she is a fighter. And for her, the priority is more to make the British Olympic team, given that her brother James is going to be one of the umpires.”
Britain’s six-strong women’s division at Wimbledon is fleshed out by Naomi Broady, the Under-18 champion whom Rusedski admires for her courageous vanquishing of Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia in the first round last year, and fellow wild card Johanna Konta.
The inclusion of Konta is intriguing, given that the Australian-born 21 year-old has only been a British citizen for four weeks. But Rusedski, who similarly did not adopt citizenship until 1995, has seen sufficient quality from the youngster to convince him that she can carry the British flag effectively.
“She’s a rapidly improving player and she’ll be good for the others to have around,” he says. “For our girls this could be the most interesting Wimbledon yet.”
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