Some common sense: Laura Robson’s growing pains...

Laura Robson went out in the first round after playing some terrific stuff against the women’s No 4 seed, Jelena Jankovic, at Wimbledon. She then went out in the semi-finals of the girls’ singles, losing in straight sets to Sachie Ishizu, of Japan.

She got into a right strop about it too, bouncing her rackets about and stamping and slamming the door and refusing to tidy her room — so much so that he mother was heard to call out: “Grow up, Laura.” I’m not convinced she needs to.

She’s 16. Like most 16 year-olds, 16 is not her age but her average. Sometimes she is 21, sometimes she is 11. That’s what quite a lot of being 16 is all about: and that rule counts double for a teenager in the public eye. She has a right to be a child, to be a teenager, then to be a precocious adult, just as life takes her. We call it “growing up”.

I wish her luck: when she’s good, she’s very, very good. And anyway, I’m reminded of the advice Goran Ivanisevic gave to a young Croatian player: “Keep smashing those rackets.”

Simon Barnes, The Times
5th July 2010