Nine times Grand Slam winner Monica Seles has given young Brit Laura Robson some helpful advice ahead of the Wimbledon Championships, stating hat the 15-year old should ‘Go out there and enjoy it.’
Robson is set to become the youngest player in the Women’s Singles event since Martina Hingis made her debut at the tender age of 14, and she recently admitted that she would be under pressure after the large amounts of media hype she has received since winning the junior event at SW19 twelve months ago.
However Seles believes that a player of such an age should simply play for the sheer enjoyment of participating in a Grand Slam, and that pressure should not be a factor:
"If she starts getting nervous just remember why you started playing tennis and go back to that simplicity - that thought has helped me so much in my tennis career.’’ said Seles.
"The only advice I ever got was just deal with it and go - in tennis you are only as good as your last few tournaments - on the court you really don't have much time to think so for me that was never really a problem".
Seles’s advice will be of great value to Robson. The American knows what pressure is all about, and how intense things can get - she was infamously stabbed at a tournament in Hamburg in 1993, something which nearly ruined her career and life altogether. Her experienced words will surely be taken on board by Robson, who will have the whole of the Wimbledon crowd behind her this year.