Robson tipped for top after victory

| Thursday June 27, 2013 00:00

But the 19-year-old is perhaps made of sterner stuff than her contemporaries and lifted the gathering gloom amid bright sunshine on court. She left 78 minutes later having dismantled the Russian No10 seed Maria Kirilenko and with the roar of the SW19 crowd ringing in her ears. Pat Cash, the former Wimbledon champion, immediately predicted Robson would be a top five player on the women's tour and a Grand Slam winner. Before Robson overcame Kirilenko with a swashbuckling display and became the first British woman for 15 years to beat a top 10 player at Wimbledon, the knives were again being sharpened for outgoing Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Roger Draper.

He will step down in September after seven years of fending off criticism over a lack of depth among elite British players and a failure to grow grassroots participation.As he earlier sat watching British women's No2 Heather Watson lose in straight sets to highly rated American teenager Madison Keys, he could have been forgiven for getting that sinking feeling. Ahead of Robson's victory, seven out of eight Brits in action had lost their opening round matches.

Later on wildcard Tara Moore became the eighth British player to exit in the first round, finally succumbing over three tough sets to the Estonian Kaia Kanepi despite being ranked 148 places below her. Like Murray, who left Scotland for Spain at 15, the Australian-born Robson did not begin as a product of the LTA system, but has been funded by them for many years. She moved to the UK when she was six and recently employed Murray's former trainer Miles Maclagan on a temporary basis after parting company with her coach.

In truth Draper, paid £640,000 a year and not easily given to self-doubt, is right to consistently argue that Wimbledon alone is not the only barometer by which he and the LTA should be measured. Following her impressive victory an unflustered Robson, exhibiting something of Murray's single-mindedness, said she did not let the perennial debate about British tennis bother her. 'I've always been one to just focus on myself and not worry about everyone else's expectations.' Other measures of UK tennis success provide cause for concern. Not least the fact that there are still no British male tennis players in the top 200 in the world apart from Murray. Just before Wimbledon, the grassroots quango Sport England repeated its warning that the governing body could have its funding pulled if it failed to hit participation targets. (Guardian)