Robson wins teenage tussle

Laura Robson, pictured, beat fellow teenager Samantha Crawford to progress to the second round
28 August 2012

Laura Robson will play Kim Clijsters in the second round of the US Open after coming through a tight tussle with fellow teenager Samantha Crawford at Flushing Meadows.

The 18-year-old was not at her best but did a good job of winning the points that mattered in a 6-3 7-6 (8/6) victory and now has the chance to play the pantomime villain and bring a premature end to three-time champion Clijsters' final professional tournament.

Robson was playing in a grand slam as a direct entrant on ranking for the first time and found herself in the unusual position of being the senior player.

American Crawford, 17, came through qualifying and is ranked only 393rd compared to Robson's 89, so this was a great opportunity for the British number three to reach the second round for the second successive year.

The pair have similar games, hitting plenty of winners but also making a lot of errors, but it was Robson who was just the steadier in the opening set. Robson had the better of three straight breaks to lead 5-3 and then held to take the set, but quickly found herself down a break in the second.

Robson hit back to level at 3-3 and from there both players held serve to take the set into a tie-break. Robson donated the first set point to her opponent with a double fault, and Crawford should have taken it but smashed the ball straight back to her opponent after the British player's return had flown up in the air off her frame, and then dumped a volley long.

The American certainly possesses a lot of power but Robson traded well to bring up her first match point and took it when her opponent drilled a return wide.

Heather Watson's US Open campaign came to an end on the first afternoon as she was beaten 6-2 6-3 by ninth seed Li Na.

Li has well and truly hit form on the north American hard courts. The 30-year-old reached the final in Montreal earlier this month, losing to Petra Kvitova, and then beat Agnieszka Radwanska, Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber back to back to win her first title of the year in Cincinnati.

Watson, meanwhile, was fresh from winning her second WTA Tour doubles title of the year in Texas with New Zealand's Marina Erakovic on Friday but had not won a singles match since the Olympics.

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