Enlarge imageBy Kylie MacLellan
LONDON (Reuters) - Nerves eventually got the better of 15-year-old Laura Robson on her debut in Wimbledon's main draw on Monday but a strong start and her plucky determination gave British fans a new young hopeful to get behind.
Local favourite Robson, the youngest player to feature since Martina Hingis in 1995, started well, opening the match with an ace and breaking former world number five Daniela Hantuchova twice to take the first set to rapturous applause.
However, the pressure eventually got the better of the schoolgirl, who was Wimbledon junior girls champion last year, and she double faulted at several crucial moments before losing 3-6 6-4 6-2 to the 26-year-old Slovakian.
"Before I went on I was completely fine. I wasn't nervous at all," Robson told reporters. "I was kind of thinking about what the towels were going to look like this year," the teenager added, giggling. "They're really nice!"
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Despite the crowd relishing the chance to get behind a fellow Brit, with regular shouts of "Come on Laura" every time she looked ready to give up, Robson slowly crumpled, getting visibly more annoyed at herself with every mistake.
"I keep messing it up," she yelled out on court, screwing up her face in anger after one of 14 double faults.
"I don't know what happened," she added. "When I was the break up in the second, I just got really nervous."
"But I'm pretty proud of myself," said the youngster who sat her school exams two weeks ago. "I thought I played really, really good for a good part of the match."
The contest, which was the first held on the new sunken number two court, was opened by the Duke of Kent before a crowd including Bank of England governor Mervyn King and Virginia Wade, the last British female to win Wimbledon in 1977.
Hantuchova said it had been a tough match because she had never seen Robson, who is ranked 488 in the world, play before.
"It took me a while to get used to her game," she said. "It didn't feel very good being a set down and a couple games down and getting kicked by a girl 11 years younger than me."
"Obviously, she's got talent," added Hantuchova, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2002. "She still has many things to improve but I think she's on the right way, for sure."
(Editing by Ken Ferris)
