Laura Robson captivates England
WIMBLEDON, England -- They had a news conference Saturday in which British reporters interviewed a 14-year-old tennis phenom, and if you think anyone in their right mind would miss such a thing, you're profoundly mistaken.
Laura Robson had become the first Briton since Annabel Croft in 1984 to win the Wimbledon girls' singles title, and so starved is the motherland for tennis promise that you'd have thought she'd just beaten Serena Williams with elan and serves to the body.
"Rob Joy," went the headline in the Sun.
"Glory Laura," went the Daily Mail.
"Tell Laura We Love Her," chimed the Daily Express.
Please forgive the motherland. It has been eons since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977.
She appeared on the front of the Times of London, "and I have to say that was a pretty shocking picture," she said. The BBC aired her match in the final. In her news conference, a grown man asked her, "Do you assume now the money may come in and make you rich?"
She revealed she gets no allowance but reveled in having gotten to use the Hawk-Eye system for checking line calls, a benefit of suddenly appearing on a stadium court, Court No. 1.
"When the people told us that we were allowed to use it," she said, "I was so pumped 'cause I was actually gonna challenge like the first ball of the match even if it was 10 feet out . . . It's so entertaining. And my brother was so pleased that I got one right."
She gets to attend the Wimbledon ball, and she pined away in public for men's semifinalist Marat Safin as her date. He couldn't make it but, she said. "He sent me a letter. I've memorized it. It says, 'Sorry I can't come to the ball, but good luck for your final tomorrow.' Then he signed it. It was really nice."
Then, with comic timing: "I'm not sure who I'm going to take now that he's out of the picture. A bit disappointing actually."
She was born in Australia, moved to England at 6. An Australian reporter asked whether she felt an Australian connection.
To which English reporters jokingly booed.
"No," Robson said.
"Go away! She's ours!" a British reporter hollered across the room to the Australian journalist.
"No," she deadpanned again, to a swell of laughter.
Still, there's something that must be said in this case, as they're already calling her a national hero and casting her as the next British hope.
Good luck, Miss Robson.
