Fourteen years old and unseeded, Laura Robson of Great Britain has won the 2008 junior girls Wimbledon championship in a match that I enjoyed as much as any I saw in the last two weeks, and more than many I saw. Robson defeated the talented third seed, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. A shot-maker with great confidence, Robson showed off just about every aspect of her aggressive game today. For a set and a half, she was just a bit better than her opponent, but then she had an obvious mental lapse and began to make errors. Lertcheewakarn took advantage of this vulnerability, became more aggressive, and took the second set. But from the beginning of the third set, Robson was in charge (though the scoreline does not reflect the fight put up by Lertcheewakarn).
When Robson won her division of the Eddie Herr International Junior Championships, she also had a second set slump, after winning the first set, 6-0. She then came back to win the third set, 6-0. So she has already learned how to change gears when she needs to, which is the mark of a champion.
Robson is already getting telephone calls from concerned people in her camp, advising her what not to say in interviews. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to be paying much attention to them. Robson is cheeky and amusing, and I hope we hear much more from her--and from Lertcheewakarn.
Did anyone else notice a touch of racism and nationalism in the BBC TV commentary to this match? One of the commentators talked about Lertcheewakarn's face not giving away her feelings or emotions- seemed to me to be coming from the racist myth of the 'inscrutable oriental'. And then when Lertcheewakarn played so well in the second set, still the whole commentary was focused on Robson. It seemed like pretty dreadful commentary to me.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a stretch to call the comment on Lertcheewakarn's stone face racist. Like Chris Evert, she is just that type of player, and commentators generally point that out.
ReplyDeleteAs for the nationalism, I do understand; the Brits haven't seen a female with that much promise in decades. I don't like it, but I understand it. And I'm used to it: In the U.S., all the commentators talk about are American players and Sharapova.
The worst, for me, was the Dulko-Dementieva match. It was an extremely close match, and Dulko leads in their head-to-head, but the commentators never even mentioned her name.
Thanks for your reply. I haven't watched tennis in years so I wasn't aware that this was a standard comment--I just happened to be visiting a friend who wanted to watch it--so I confess to a substantial lack of familiarity with the genre of live tennis commentary. It still seems odd to me, but I appreciate the context you've provided.
ReplyDeleteI think there may be another reason the commentator mentioned it, too--playing without visible emotion is pretty mature (or at least, I think it is) for a junior player.
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