Laura Robson beaten by Sam Stosur in US Open fourth round

By Mike WhalleyBBC Sport

Last updated on .From the section Tenniscomments88

Laura Robson

Laura Robson is out of the US Open after a 6-4 6-4 fourth-round defeat by defending champion Sam Stosur.

The 18-year-old, aiming to become the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for 28 years, produced a spirited display.

However, she was unable to capitalise on two break points at 4-4 in the first set, which she lost on a double fault.

Robson saved eight match points before Australian Stosur, the seventh seed, completed victory in 98 minutes.

Stosur will face world number one Victoria Azarenka or unseeded Georgian Anna Tatishvili in the quarter-finals.

The Australian said: "I think Laura is a very good player. She's very young and she's got a lot of years ahead of her.

"She hits the ball great and thinks things through. She's one to watch."

No British woman had reached the last eight of a Grand Slam since Jo Durie at Wimbledon in 1984, but Robson raised hopes with her performances at Flushing Meadows.

The world number 89 knocked out two former Grand Slam champions, Kim Clijsters and Li Na, on her way to the fourth round.

She started aggressively against Stosur, winning an early break, but let slip a 40-15 lead in her next service game as Stosur broke back.

Stosur survived a scare at 4-4, serving two double faults and saving two break points before holding serve.

She made the most of that escape as Robson faltered on her serve to lose the set.

Robson failed to take any of the three break points she engineered at 1-1 in the second set, and was broken again when sending a looping backhand long.

Frustration looked to be creeping into Robson's game, but she showed great spirit to save five match points on her own serve at 5-2, then survived two more to break back in the following game.

Stosur had two more match points on the Robson serve at 5-4, taking the second to secure victory as the British teenager sent a forehand long.

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88 comments

  • Comment posted by BrunoDante, at 10:07 3 Sep 2012

    She only lived in Australia for the first 18 months of her life so whilst she has an Australian heritage absolutely none of her development as a player took place in Australia. She's lived in Britain for most of her life and considers herself to be British. End of story. It's great to see the Aussies so bitter about British sporting success though. How many gold medals did you lot win again? ;-)

  • Comment posted by jimthree60, at 09:57 3 Sep 2012

    @glamorgan She's British now, get over it.

    @Reynolds, stop being such an inverted snob and celebrate her success. I know I could never have achieved anything like that when I was so young, so why not just be impressed?

    @RC Yes I think that's about right. Pity that it's such a small climb in the rankings. Means that she'll have to back up this performance over the next year or so to move up.

  • Comment posted by U15112941, at 10:52 3 Sep 2012

    How can anyone be negative about an 18 yr old giving a good game to the previous championship winner? I say well done Laura you are growing into a formidable player and will undoubtedly be a future winner of many chanpionships.

  • Comment posted by U15406100, at 10:52 3 Sep 2012

    Brilliant effort the entire tournament. Keep improving as she is and she'll walk into the top 20 in a couple of years.
    @45 You'd be right if she was 27. However she's 18, so your statement holds no weight.

  • Comment posted by chrismet, at 10:40 3 Sep 2012

    The best thing to is ignore glamorgan as people like that thrive on the attention.

  • Comment posted by fallenfaith, at 10:32 3 Sep 2012

    #41. You're a sad and bitter person. Does that truth hurt?

  • Comment posted by U14966550, at 10:17 3 Sep 2012

    jimthree60 - not to mention, Li Na was French Open champion last year and had just won in Cincinatti, so she was one of the best outside bets.

    Glamorgan - come back when you have something relevant to say. You're not even worth humiliating by naming the many, many Australian cricketers and rugby players born outside Australia. You have an insular, selective, jingoistic agenda and it's tedious.

  • Comment posted by Mike, at 11:28 3 Sep 2012

    Boy are there some bitter and twisted people here. And somewhat short-memoried. This is an 18 year old Olympic silver medalist you are trying to put down so her string of successes in the US Open is hardly a one-off.

  • Comment posted by chrismet, at 11:02 3 Sep 2012

    #45.... "Happy someone put her back in her place. Flash in the pan. She will look back on this as the 'highlight' of her career."

    That's nice of you but I hope you don't mind if I ignore someone who can't spell 'condemn'.

  • Comment posted by RememberScarborough, at 10:59 3 Sep 2012

    @45 - Quite clearly you've never watched her play so I hate to upset you but Laura's going to be around to bug you for years to come.

    @22 - I'd rather have Laura representing my country than the chavs from Towie or Xfactor. At least she's nice and has achived something with her life.

    @47 - You can run as far as you like but you'll still be British. It must be gutting to hate yourself....

  • Comment posted by ShannonTheCraic, at 10:45 3 Sep 2012

    Laura has done extremely well getting to the fourth round, she should be British number 1. hopefully her ranking will go up a bit. Give her a couple of years and she'll definitely deliver!

  • Comment posted by David C, at 10:16 3 Sep 2012

    @reynolds - tell me what is the average brit these days? Why not just celebrate someone's coming of age in a tough sport instead of being negative about it, is the average brit negative and unpleasant?

  • Comment posted by jimthree60, at 10:13 3 Sep 2012

    It's hardly "pathetic" to beat a four-time Slam champion, one person in the World's Top Ten, and give the defending champion a very stern test. Only 16 people make it through to the fourth round of a slam - being one of them is always an achievement.

  • Comment posted by U14966550, at 10:07 3 Sep 2012

    Great effort, great run, great prospect.

  • Comment posted by BrunoDante, at 09:57 3 Sep 2012

    Not as hilarious as your cricket team though eh, glamorgan?

  • Comment posted by SirHaroldWilson, at 08:33 3 Sep 2012

    Once she has her serve sorted out, she will reach last 8, last 16 of Slams on a regular basis, as some of her returning was bringing cries of astonishment from the crowd. It's just discouraging when she constantly has to re-start her service action because her toss goes wrong... it happens too often for it not to be an obvious problem. But I've enjoyed her run and in no way was she outclassed.

  • Comment posted by leedsyweedsy, at 08:23 3 Sep 2012

    Wonderful performances by Laura Robson. She will have brought an excellent feel good factor to the other British female tennis players. Hopefully they will now see, that it IS possible to progress a long way in major tennis tournaments. Personally i believe that she should have beaten Stosur. She was there for the taking, a little more composure from Laura and she would be in the last eight.

  • Comment posted by U3733790, at 18:00 3 Sep 2012

    Joe, actually usually Scot and Murray have to be in the same sentence, same as Hoy, "the big Scot" , "the real McHoy" etc yet Wiggins is only ever "British". I have never heard Redgrave or Ainslee referred to as English, only British.
    It appears to be wrong to state someone in British colours is English but fine to say Scottish.

  • Comment posted by Leematon, at 16:03 3 Sep 2012

    #71 - Laura Robson left Oz when she was 18 months old. She then spent a few years in Singapore before finally arriving in Britain at the age of six. If that isn't a naturalised Brit, what is?

  • Comment posted by Kapnag, at 15:03 3 Sep 2012

    The australians have to claim something, many of their sports have gone down the toilet in the last 10 years

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