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Laura Robson is optimistic her bad run of luck is finally over. The 21-year-old is still working her way back up the rankings after a serious wrist injury took her off the tour for 17 months. Since her return in Eastbourne she was able to play just four tour-level tournaments in 2015. She cut her season short after the US Open due to recurring wrist pain and last week it was reported that she plans to skip the Australian Open in January, which she could have entered using a protected ranking.
Despite all that, Robson looked relaxed and fit at the Maria Sharapova & Friends, presented by Porsche exhibition event this weekend at UCLA. Robson paired up with Andy Roddick for a mixed doubles match against Madison Keys and Mardy Fish on Saturday and then took on Sharapova and Kei Nishikori with Jack Sock on Sunday.
It was the first time since the US Open that Robson – former British No.1, junior Wimbledon champion at 14-years-old, with two fourth round runs at the majors before she was 20 – played in a non-practice setting and she more than held her own. “It’s fun for me to get out of Florida for a weekend and come play and have a partner like Roddick and Jack Sock, it’s just different.”
Robson sat down with WTA Insider to talk about everything from her embarrassing love of Justin Bieber’s Christmas album to her current injury status – spoiler alert: she’s pain free and able to hit full out – the frustrating rehabilitation process, and when we can expect to see her back on the WTA tour.
And if there are any concerns that her competitive spirit might be rusty, don’t worry. She’s currently engaged in a tough battle for the Spirit of Christmas on her Florida street.
WTA Insider: First off, how are you feeling and what are you looking forward to in 2016?
Robson: “I’m very happy with the progress that’s been made. After the US Open I obviously hurt my wrist a little bit again. Not in a serious way at all. There was just some leftover scar tissue that wasn’t healing. I just had to get that taken care of. I would have loved to have played another couple of tournaments at the end of the year but I didn’t want to rush into it again and I didn’t want to come back and take six weeks off and so on. So we decided to just shut it down and get the proper rest and proper rehab and I started hitting again just over a month ago. So I’ve been in Florida for a good while already, hitting a lot, hitting full.”
WTA Insider: News came out last week that you’ve decided to skip the Australian Open. Can you talk me through that decision?
Robson: “That was more of a protected ranking decision. I would have loved to have played. I obviously wanted to be there just as everyone else does. It’s my favorite place to start the year off.
“I get two Slams with my protected [ranking]. One I used in New York. I figured I’d get as many matches behind me as possible and use the second one in Paris [for the French Open]. I could have asked for a wildcard but at this point I think it’s better for me to play [ITF] $25Ks, $50Ks, everything. Get as many matches as I can in, get my ranking up to where I can get into tournaments by myself and not worry about asking for wildcards and using my protected. I think I have seven tournaments left including one Slam so there’s plenty of time.”
WTA Insider: Do you know where you plan to use your remaining protected ranking entries?
Robson: “I know what I want to play, my coach knows what I want to play, but I feel like everyone else has been guessing a little bit and writing about it already. It feels a little frustrating for me because I don’t want to correct it every time. I initially planned to start a couple of weeks before Indian Wells with the protected [ranking] again and then play that, play through the clay season, and my protected will run out in Eastbourne. I would have to use it all before then. But I haven’t actually said which tournaments.”
WTA Insider: What have been the toughest moments of being off tour?
Robson: “The hardest part was from a couple of weeks before the US Open when I started feeling pain again. That really sucked. It was pain where it was going on and off, and on and off, and I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t tell anyone about it for a while because I didn’t want to go through that whole process again. So after New York when it was more on than off I went and saw my surgeon again and fixed it all up. But it was a tough few weeks there. Being in the brace again was just awful.
“It’s definitely been a long process. When everyone else says oh I’ve been injured I’m like no, I think I have you there.
“It’s been a long process and it’s still not over. I have a ranking again which is nice. But still a lot of work to put in. It’s going to be a long way back. But if I didn’t want to do it I would have quit a long time ago.”
WTA Insider: How much have you been keeping tabs as to what’s happening on tour?
Robson: “The first time when I was injured I didn’t watch any tennis because it was just depressing. Especially when I didn’t have a diagnosis – this was after the Australian Open last year – I didn’t care about any results or anything and I didn’t care about watching. But once I started my rehab process and started hitting again, yeah. I like tennis and I was interested in results and who’s playing. It’s been tough to watch everyone get better and improve and play matches, but I’m obviously happy for the people that are doing well and hopefully I’ll be back there.”
WTA Insider: I know you to be a rabid consumer of pop culture. You’re always listening to music or watching the latest TV shows. So what’s Laura Robson been up to these days?
Robson: “I know you’re going to judge me but I have been listening to Justin Bieber’s Christmas album and Jessie Decker’s Christmas album. She’s got a good looking husband, but who knew she had that sort of festive personality in her? I really enjoy that Christmas album. I just finished Jessica Jones, which was intense.
“Recently, I didn’t know that everyone the day after Thanksgiving goes in on the Christmas lights. I live on a street where everyone is retired. I’m the youngest person by about 60 years. I woke the day after Thanksgiving and all of a sudden there were inflatable snowmen, everything. So then the competitive nature kicked in.
“I’ve been to Walmart eight times. I have about 2,000 lights outside the house right now. I’ve got these icicles that you can control with an app on your phone. And then they keep adding more to their house, so I keep adding more to my house. You find entertainment everywhere in Florida.”
WTA Insider: Anyone who follows you on social media knows you’re a big fan of the undefeated Carolina Panthers. I know you’re not a bandwagon fan, but can you explain how you became such a big fan?
Robson: “Cam Newton used to train at IMG and he was there maybe five years ago between Indian Wells and Miami and I was there. I was watching him work out and I’ve never seen anyone that athletic before. You’re watching him in the gym and you’re like this is the ultimate physical specimen. My trainers and I were totally freaking out about it. We started watching his games and then I became an actual Panthers fan rather than just a Cam Newton fan.
“It’s a bit embarrassing because he’s represented by [IMG agent] Carlos Fleming and I know Carlos. Every time he’s like “Yeah, I was telling Cam about you.” And I’m like no, don’t. Please don’t. It’s just so awkward.”
WTA Insider: Well you must be feeling pretty good about this season.
Robson: “I’m kind of hoping that they lose. I think they’ll lose to the Giants but as long as we lose one game before the playoffs I’m good. We’re not going to lose to the Bucs. It’s going to be to the Giants or the Falcons. We’ll see.”
Listen to the full interview with WTA Insider in this week’s podcast:
Fending off the rain over the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, the Micromax Indian Aces – led by Agnieszka Radwanska and Sania Mirza – and the OUE Singapore Slammers – led by Karolina Pliskova and Belinda Bencic – won crucial matches during the International Premier Tennis League’s second night in Dubai.
Playing second for the Aces, Radwanska won a 6-4 set of women’s singles against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic. Mirza came out for the very next set of mixed doubles; partnered with reigning French Open men’s doubles champ Ivan Dodig, the Wimbledon and US Open women’s doubles winner beat Jarmila Gajdosova and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 6-4, in 30 minutes. The Aces ultimately won, 30-17, to remain in first place.
Next up were Kristina Mladenovic’s OBI UAE Royals. Playing in front of the home crowd, Mladenovic narrowly lost her set of women’s singles against good friend Pliskova, 6-5(7-3). Though she redeemed herself in mixed doubles, pairing Daniel Nestor to defeat Bencic and Andy Murray – later Nick Kyrgios in substitution – 6-3, it wasn’t enough for the Royals, who lost a 27-24 final score to the Slammers.
Check out the best tweets of the night:
Still friends with @MirzaSania before the match 🙂 let's see after ??? @iptl pic.twitter.com/VB6JjaJXXu
— Jarmila Gajdosova (@tennis_jarkag) December 15, 2015
???????? https://t.co/57kg1lfzrt
— Ajla Tomljanovic (@Ajlatom) December 15, 2015
Pool time with my team? @marcelomelo83 @BelindaBencic @SG_Slammers pic.twitter.com/7QZvrmWCNS
— Karolina Pliskova (@KaPliskova) December 14, 2015
Well, you tried, @BelindaBencic @KaPliskova. #thehandshakethatneverhappens #slammers #iptl2 pic.twitter.com/8RBNPaqhk2
— Aliny Calejon (@alcalejon) December 15, 2015
#TeamWork Andy and Beli. ? pic.twitter.com/xxAW39Pero
— #TeamBelinda (@FanOfBencic) December 15, 2015
Aces faces! #Tenfie #BreakTheCode @rohanbopanna @MirzaSania @ARadwanska @DodigTennis @IndianAces pic.twitter.com/z1h3meMJ4S
— IPTL (@iptl) December 15, 2015
On Episode 11, WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen discusses 2015 WTA Player Of The Year Serena Williams’ deserved place as Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson Of The Year, becoming the first active tennis player to win the award since Chris Evert in 1976 and the first African-American woman to win the standalone award.
Then you’ll hear from Maria Sharapova, Madison Keys and Laura Robson. The three sat down with Courtney in Los Angeles over the weekend before Sharapova’s exhibition event, Maria Sharapova & Friends, to talk about their off-seasons and hopes for the upcoming year.
Sharapova discusses her busy off-season schedule and how she hopes to prepare for next year’s compacted Olympic schedule, Keys speaks on her split with Lindsay Davenport for the first time since the news was announced, and Robson provides an update on her injury status and explains why she opted to skip the Australian Open.
“The hardest part was from a couple of weeks before the US Open when I started feeling pain again,” Robson said. “That really sucked. It was pain where it was going on and off, and on and off, and I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t tell anyone about it for a while because I didn’t want to go through that whole process again. So after New York when it was more on than off I went and saw my surgeon again and fixed it all up. But it was a tough few weeks there. Being in the brace again was just awful.
“It’s definitely been a long process. When everyone else says oh I’ve been injured I’m like no, I think I have you there.”
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app of your choice and reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. You can also get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.
Continuing our Season In Review Series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the best ATP World Tour comebacks of 2015:
5. Jerzy Janowicz d. Dustin Brown 2-6, 7-6(1), 7-5/R32/Montpellier
Fifth-seeded Pole Jerzy Janowicz survived an opening-round scare at the Open Sud de France, somehow saving half a dozen match points to turn back Germany’s Dustin Brown in three sets 2-6, 7-6(1), 7-5.
For Brown, the first three match points came and went at 5-3 and 5-4 in the second set. With the match leveled at a set apiece, Janowicz again dug deep to save two match points with Brown serving at 6-5 in the decider. The Pole, who smacked 14 aces and won 51 of 69 (74 per cent) of his first-serve points in the comeback, rallied to defeat the German in one hour and 47 minutes.
Janowicz would go on to the Montpellier final, where trailing 0-3 to Frenchman Richard Gasquet he retired with an illness. But the 24-year-old would go on to finish in the Top 75 (No. 57) of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the third straight year.
4. Tomas Berdych d. Bernard Tomic 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-1/R16/Miami
Bernard Tomic was up a set and a pair of breaks when World No. 9 Tomas Berdych came roaring back at the Miami Open. The 6-foot-5 Czech would save four match points in a 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-1 victory in two hours and 35 minutes.
The 2010 Wimbledon finalist fought off match points at 2-5, 3-5 and 4-5 to bring the second set back on serve before winning the tie-break to level the match at one set apiece.
A week after tooth pain and a back injury forced him to pull out of his quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells, Tomic was haunted by unforced errors in the third set as he lost his opening service game. He would never recover as Berdych wrapped up the set 6-1.
Berdych remained a perfect four-for-four against Tomic, including a fourth-round victory at the Australian Open in January.
3. Novak Djokovic d. Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-0/R16/Miami
Leave it to Novak Djokovic to find a way to win even when he’s feeling out of sorts. Down 6-7(3), 1-4, the World No. 1 would win 12 of the next 13 games, dropping just three points in the third set to dismiss Alexandr Dolgopolov in three comeback sets at the Miami Open.
“I just felt it wasn’t my kind of a day today,” Djokovic reflected. “In the warm-up, the entire day, it was one of those days where you don’t feel so great mentally. But I fought. I fought my way through. I was just trying to find a way to come back in the match. It was just believing more, and I was just kind of hanging in there, fighting a different battle inside of myself.”
Asked about his Houdini-like escape, the Serb asserted, “I was literally a game or two from losing the match. I’m just happy to be able to bounce back. These particular matches do help me in a certain way mentally to gain that confidence and self‑belief in a way that I never give up and battle till the last point, and it sends a message also to the other players, as well.”
2. Roberto Bautista Agut d. Steve Johnson 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8)/SF/Valencia
Hometown hero Roberto Bautista Agut saved six match points to down Steve Johnson 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8) in just over two hours at the Valencia Open. Johnson struck 13 aces to Bautista Agut’s six and claimed the first set, but the No. 7-seeded Spaniard reached his second ATP World Tour final in as many weeks (l. to Marin Cilic in Moscow) by forcing a third-set tie-break and by recovering from a 3-6 deficit in the decider.
“It was an incredible match,” said Bautista Augut. “It was really tough and I was really close to losing. I think today I could win, I could lose — anything was possible on the court.”
With the victory, Bautista Agut improved to 4-0 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Johnson and prevented the American from reaching a second consecutive tour-level final after he finished runner-up in Vienna (l. to David Ferrer).
1. Jeremy Chardy d. John Isner 6-7(9), 7-6(13), 7-6(4) /QF/Montreal
Jeremy Chardy saved seven match points to defeat John Isner 6-7(9), 7-6(13), 7-6(4) in a rain-delayed match at the Rogers Cup, reaching the semi-finals of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event for the first time.
The Frenchman saved five match points — at 5-6, 6-7, 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 in the 19-minute second-set tie-break, the longest of 2015 — and converted on his fourth set point to keep his hopes alive. In the third set, Isner fought on to earn two more match points on Chardy’s serve at 6-5, but his opponent erased both and closed out the game with an ace to force a deciding tie-break. He converted on his first match point after three hours and 12 minutes.
“It was a crazy match,” said Chardy. “We both served really well and we both had our chances, so I am happy that I won it in the end. On those match points, I was only thinking about where I wanted to hit my serve or how to play the point. Under pressure it’s easy to get nervous and miss if you start thinking about the match point or the break point.
“It’s never easy,” he said of playing a power serve like Isner. “He had seven match points, so it was a really close match. You need to stay focused on your game, your service game. I know if I get broken, the set is close to being finished. I was lucky to come back in the second. I’m really happy I stayed focused and strong in my head the whole match.”
Super tennis fan Ioana won a once-in-a-lifetime chance to chat with her favorite player, Petra Kvitova. Check out the audition tape that won her the grand prize!
Laura Robson says she is pleased with her recovery from a wrist injury and has no intention of quitting tennis.
The 21-year-old has played in eight events since returning from a 17-month lay-off in June, and had to end her season early after suffering a relapse.
She played in an exhibition in Los Angeles last weekend and is planning to return to the WTA Tour in the new year.
“It’s going to be a long way back. But if I didn’t want to do it I would have quit a long time ago,” she said.
“I’m very happy with the progress that’s been made.
The former British number one – now ranked 553 in the world – decided not to use her protected ranking of 58 to gain direct entry into January’s Australian Open.
She will miss the first Grand Slam of the year and instead is aiming to build up her ranking at smaller events in preparation for the French Open in May.
“I get two Slams with my protected ranking. One I used in New York (at the US Open). I figured I’d get as many matches behind me as possible and use the second one in Paris,” she told WTA Insider.
“I could have asked for a wildcard but, at this point, I think it’s better for me to get in as many matches as I can and get my ranking up to where I can get into tournaments by myself.”
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At the start of 2015, former No.1 Victoria Azarenka began her comeback from injuries at the site of some of her career’s greatest successes. Besides rival Serena Williams, Azarenka is the only active woman to have won the Australian Open more than once, both titles coming in back-to-back years (2012, 2013) – defeating former (and future) champions Maria Sharapova and Li Na in each final.
“I love the energy of people here,” she said after winning her second round match in Melbourne. “I think the whole country is like sport nation. They really love sport.
“It’s also the first Grand Slam of the year. What the tournament has been doing to improve is very, very impressive. I think you feel very excited every time you come here to play.”
How far does her love for Australia go?
“I don’t know,” she said, addding, “I guess like I’m going to adopt an Aussie kid or something like that.”
Her return to the Happy Slam was a mixed bag in 2015; beginning the tournament with a bang, she took out a trio of dangerous opposition in Sloane Stephens, then-World No.8 Caroline Wozniacki, and Barbora Strycova before losing a thrilling fourth round encounter with Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
“I think there are a lot of the positive things to take from here,” she told press after her loss. “It’s a good start. There was some good quality of tennis today, even though the result is not the one that I wanted and not what I was looking for.
“But I need to be realistic a little bit and keep working hard and try to sharpen my game. I need to be more consistent and I need to be able to take my opportunities when I have them.
“Overall, I can be pretty happy. But I’m such a perfectionist that I don’t want to be satisfied.”
That drive for perfection took her through some dramatic matches with Williams at the Mutua Madrid Open – where she held multiple match points – and the next two major tournaments at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Azarenka finally reached a major quarterfinal at the US Open, only to come out on the losing end yet again, this time to World No.2 Simona Halep, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
“I don’t usually get [the best players] when they are in the bad form,” she said in Flushing. “Usually they play really well against me.”
Still, Azarenka plays quite well herself, and should she remain healthy, she will certainly be one to watch heading into her favorite major tournament.
British number two Heather Watson has parted company with her Argentine coach Diego Veronelli.
The 23-year-old from Guernsey appointed Veronelli in December 2013, but he is no longer able to commit to spending up to 40 weeks a year on the road.
Veronelli, 36, moved from Florida back to Buenos Aires earlier this year to be with his young family.
Watson, the world number 55, won her second WTA tour title at the Hobart International in January.
Veronelli, a former world number 150, had notable success in guiding Watson back inside the world’s top 50 for a time, after she had slipped down the rankings following a bout of glandular fever in 2013.