BEIJING: Rising tennis star Laura Robson became the first British woman since 1990 to reach a main tour singles final yesterday when she defeated Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-2 in the WTA Guangzhou Open. In the final, Robson will take on Su-Wei Hsieh who beat Urszula Radwanska 6-1, 3-6, 6-0.
The 18-year-old world No.74 convincingly beat her Romanian opponent in a one-and-a-half hour semifinal in the southern Chinese city.
The Londoner had beaten second seed Zheng Jie of China 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals, before defeating Zheng’s compatriot, seventh seed Peng Shuai 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 in three-and-a-half-hours on Thursday.
Robson started brightly in the semi-final, breaking Cirstea’s serve at the first attempt before racing to a 5-1 lead within 25 minutes.
The world No. 30 then broke Robson’s serve twice before Robson broke back at the final game to win the opening set 6-4.
The No.1 ranked British player also unsettled third seed Cirstea early in the second set, breaking her first serve before being held to a lengthy tie-break at 4-1.
Robson went ahead at 5-1, but Cirstea broke back, before Robson wrapped it up in style by breaking serve again and taking all the points in the final game.
The WTA’s youngest Top 100 player, who will face Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan in the final on Saturday, will be relieved to have finished the match two hours quicker than her quarterfinal epic.
Reaching the final in Guangzhou is another landmark in a superb season which has seen Robson winning Olympic silver in the mixed doubles with Andy Murray and reaching the US Open last 16.
The teenager is the first British woman to contest a WTA tour singles final since Jo Durie at the Virginia Slims of Newport tournament in the US in 1990.
Robson became British No.1 earlier this week after she defeated Kim Clijsters and Li Na during her impressive US Open run.
She is also the first British woman to reach a WTA tour singles semifinal since Anne Keothavong at the Luxembourg Open in October 2011.
