Any extended break without laying a hand on a racket makes a return to Grand Slam tennis all the more special.
Laura Robson and her opponent on Tuesday – Evgeniya Rodina – can both vouch for that.
Robson, the former British No.1, had not played at SW19 since 2013 where she reached the fourth round. She had only played her first competitive match in 18 months at Eastbourne and the lack of matchplay proved telling on No.3 Court as she slumped to an error-ridden 6-4, 6-4 loss to the Russian qualifier.
Grand old age of 21. Definitely some good years ahead
It has been an even longer spell for the 26-year-old Rodina but for a far more jubilant reason.The Russian and her husband Denis Shteyngart, who is also her coach, had a child together in 2012 before her return to the tour in 2013. Her win over Robson became her first in a Grand Slam main draw since the Australian Open in 2011.
Still Robson was able to look on the bright side, however. She had, after all, managed just one game against Australian Daria Gavrilova in Eastbourne qualifying.
“Compared to the match I played last week, it was infinitely better. There were so many positives from today that I can go back and work on,” she said. “You know, I was the one hitting winners, but I was the one hitting unforced errors, as well. Just in terms of finishing points better, moving better, definitely serving better, it's all things to work on and things to take into the next few much smaller tournaments.”
There were promising early signs from the 21-year-old when she toughed out a hold of serve for 3-2 after six deuces.The cracks, though, began to show soon after.
Trailing 3-1 and after shanking a backhand return barely halfway up the net, she slapped her leg in frutration telling herself to “move”. She gifted Rodina set points with a string of errors and moaned to herself “stop finishing too quickly.”
Despite saving a match point on the Rodina serve in the second set, Robson’s comeback would end up finishing rather quickly. Rodina sealed the result on her second chance with a body-jamming serve, drawing the shank from the Brit and a scream of joy after 1 hour, 43 minutes.
“In my pre-tournament presser, I said the disappointment of not playing here two years in a row kind of outweighed starting a smaller tournament. It was a no‑brainer in my mind. If this unfortunately happens again, I will kind of reconsider,” Robson said.
“It was extremely exciting. I was extremely nervous before I went on. Every time I felt like I was getting ahead in the game or I had a break point, it was like the last 17 months of nerves just coming out and saying, ‘Hi’.”
The Brit showed glimpses of the shots which carried her to an upset of defending Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova in Melbourne two years ago. Her 34 winners were nearly triple the Russian’s, however she misfired with a whopping 45 unforced errors to just 12 from Rodina.
A former world No.27, Robson was adamant she could improve and surpass her level from two years ago. It would just take time.
“I'm pretty confident that I have the ability to get back to where I was, if not higher. You know, it's going to be a long process to get there, but I'm very excited that I have another chance to do it,” she said. “Yeah, grand old age of 21. I've got a bit of time ahead of me. Yeah, definitely some more good years ahead.”
