Laura Robson suffers first-round straight-sets exit to Beatriz Haddad Maia at Wimbledon

1/150
Andy Sims3 July 2017

Laura Robson's Wimbledon campaign was over in the blink of an eye after a straight-sets defeat to Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia.

The former British number one, handed a wildcard into the championships, tumbled out 6-4 6-2 before Andy Murray had even opened proceedings on Centre Court.

Nine years ago Robson rose to prominence after winning the girl's singles title at the All England Club, but the wait to fulfil that potential goes on.

Now 23, Robson has slipped to 189 in the world and struggled with the serve of an opponent ranked 92 places higher.

Her problems began when she dropped her own serve in the first game, sliding a lazy backhand too long before wafting a forehand wide to hand Haddad Maia the initiative.

A break point in the second game could have fixed the damage, but Haddad Maia clipped the net before the ball dribbled onto Robson's side and the chance disappeared.

Haddad Maia served out the set and promptly broke Robson, being urged on by Fed Cup captain Anne Keothavong, in the opening game of the second.

A further break for 4-1 effectively sealed Robson's fate, and although she saved four match points 21-year-old Haddad Maia eventually secured her first win at a grand slam event.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in