Robson bans mum from joining Wimbledon party

Laura Robson admitted she is ready to ban her mum from watching her at Wimbledon after the teenager became the first British woman to reach the fourth round in 15 years today.

Robson showed tremendous tenacity to come from a set and 3-5 down to defeat New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in front of a packed Court Two.

The 19-year-old will go on to face either Alison Riske of the United States or Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, a former All England Club quarter-finalist.

Sam Smith, in 1998, was the last British woman to make the last 16 at Wimbledon.

Robson, currently ranked 38 in the world, will also break into the top 30 after the tournament, the first British woman to break that barrier since Jo Durie in April 1987.

The Australia-born youngster, who won junior Wimbledon in 2008, has made her historic run without the support of her mother Kathy, who has remained at home in Greece, because she couldn’t get a sitter for the family’s dogs.

Asked if her mum would fly into London for the second week of Wimbledon, Robson said she would prefer to maintain her current routine without any family interruptions.

“I don’t think so. I’m doing okay without her here,” she said.

“Because then like it’s a whole other situation and it breaks your rhythm a little bit. So you need to have the exact same thing all the time.”

Robson underlined her potential at the US Open last year, when she defeated Kim Clijsters and Li Na en route to the last 16, but she claimed her presence in the second week at Wimbledon felt like the real deal.

“It’s now my second time in the second week of a slam, so that’s pretty cool…except at the US Open I played on the Sunday, so it didn’t quite feel like a second week, and my brother said it didn’t count!” Robson said.

“But this time will be on the Monday, so that’s pretty cool.

“It’s good to do well, especially at Wimbledon, but I’m going to be playing for another 10 years, so it’s all bonuses at this stage.

“It’s tough to play your best tennis all the time. What I’ve been working on is just accepting that I’m not going to play great tennis in every match.”

Robson’s success at Wimbledon will make her a household name across the country.

And, keen to maintain her squeaky-clean reputation, she wisely side-stepped questions about why Wimbledon chiefs controversially scheduled her on the smaller Court Two instead of Centre Court, where she defeated Mariana Duque-Marino in the previous round.

“Court 2 is still pretty big,” she said. “There was a decent size crowd in there today and they were making a lot of noise, so the atmosphere was still good.

“Any court here is a good court. I don’t think they had much to support in the first set, but they were amazing at the end. I thought they helped a lot.”

Robson won’t be rushing to celebrate her victory however, as she prefers the quiet life watching television at home and planning strategy for her next match.

“I do boring things, but normal things outside of tennis,” she said. “The majority of the time I’m focusing on how to improve and things like that. But that’s the choice that I made.

“I finished the season of Hannibal. I haven’t got too much to watch right now. If you’ve got any recommendations, let me know!”