 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2009 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2009 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2009 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2009 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2009 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2009 |
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| 03 Jun 2009 - Roland Garros - Simon Cambers | |
| Top seed Robson latest seed to fall |
Top seed Laura Robson saw her hopes of winning a second grand-slam junior title slip away in a dust-storm of drop shots on Tuesday as she was beaten in the second round of the girls’ event at Roland Garros.
The 15-year-old Briton was ousted 76 (12 10) 16 63 by 17-year-old Sandra Zaniewska of Poland, who ran the legs off of the Wimbledon junior champion.
“(Knowing) she’s going to do them is different to actually getting to them and hitting them in,” Robson said of her opponent’s drop shots.
“Once you get to the ball it’s hard to know where to hit it. If you hit it short she’s going to read it so you have to think about what you’re going to do as you’re running to hit the ball.
“I did the best that I could. She made the most of how she played by hitting drop shots and everything and she just played a really smart match.
“I ran a lot so now I am pretty tired. At times I could have served better and could have done a couple of things better but I tried my best so there is not much more I can do.”
While Robson’s exit was a big surprise, the defeat of fourth seed Timea Babos was less of a shock because she was beaten in the third round by in-form American Sloane Stephens, 64 26 64.
On paper, as the 15th seed, Stephens’ win was a surprise, but this was her 14th consecutive win and the 16-year-old, who has been working with Jose Higueras, the celebrated Spanish coach and former top player, is tipped for stardom.
“I have worked really hard from the beginning of the year just to get in shape for this long period of tennis,” said Stephens, whose mother is a former swimmer and whose father played American Football for the New England Patriots.
“I was down 20 in the third, and in the first set I was down 31. I just tried to stay in there and fight hard. I was a little tight, so I just worked for a couple of key points and then after that I just relaxed.”
Richel Hogenkamp, who beat world champion Noppawan Lertcheewakarn in round one, could not follow it up and was beaten 61 16 64 by American Beatrice Capra.
In the boys’ event, Spaniard Carlos Boluda-Purkiss, one of those tipped for success, came out second best against 10th seed Agustin Velotti.
Velotti showed excellent fitness to grind down the Spaniard and revealed that he had been learning a lot from watching the way another Spaniard Rafael Nadal, goes about his business.
“I am listening a lot to what Rafa says and like Rafa I am going from match to match and just going to give it 100 percent – and see how far I can go.”
“It’s an important experience for me (to play here). I’ve been working all my life to play this tournament - because of the clay, Roland Garros is the tournament for me.”
German Richard Becker followed up his win over top seed Liang-Chi Huang of Taipei with a 63 57 63 victory over Tiago Fernandes of Brazil.
David Souto (12), Tennys Sandgren (13) and Yannik Reuter (16) were among the other boys to progress to the third round.
Related Articles
> Robson through on day of upsets
> Tomic off to a successful start at Roland Garros
> 2009 Roland Garros Preview
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