Saturday, July 5, 2008

Notebook: British girl wins singles title

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -Britain collected its first Wimbledon singles championship in 24 years Saturday. OK, so it wasn't the men's title or the women's title, but it was a title, nonetheless.

Laura Robson, a 14-year-old who was born in Australia but moved to England when she was 6, won the girls' title at the All England Club. She beat 16-year-old Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

"Being Wimbledon girls' champion sounds really good,'' Robson said. "It was great today because the crowd were behind me and it was such an experience.


"I didn't feel relaxed and composed. I thought I was going to be sick when I walked onto court because there were so many people watching. In the second set, I went a bit mad but got it back together and managed to win.''

Robson is the youngest girls' champion at Wimbledon since Martina Hingis was 13 when she won in 1994, and the first British singles champion at Wimbledon since Annabel Croft won the girls' title in 1984.

There is no prize money, but Robson hopes the victory on Court 1 will earn her a wild card into next year's main draw. Last year's girls' champion, Urszula Radwanska, lost to runner-up Serena Williams in the second round this year.

"I'd take her down,'' Robson jokingly said of Serena Williams, who lost to older sister Venus 7-5, 6-4 in the women's final on Saturday.

Cheers erupted on Centre Court during the men's doubles final when news of Robson's victory was flashed on the scoreboard.

The last British singles player to win a main draw title was Virginia Wade in 1977. Fred Perry, in 1936, was the last British man to win a singles title at Wimbledon.

When an Australian journalist asked Robson at her postmatch news conference whether she felt any connection to her birthplace, the question was greeted by British reporters with shouts of "Go away - she's ours!'' She then firmly replied, "No.''

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MEN'S DOUBLES: Jonas Bjorkman didn't get the ending he was hoping for at Wimbledon.

The 36-year-old Bjorkman won doubles titles at the All England Club from 2002-04, but he and Kevin Ullyett lost to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic on Saturday in the Swede's last appearance at Wimbledon before he retires at the end of the season.

All the experience of Bjorkman's 128 Wimbledon matches counted for little as Nestor and Zimonjic controlled play throughout, facing just one break point on their way to a 7-6 (12), 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3 win in the men's doubles final.

"I thought we played a great match, focused really hard and did not want to give an inch,'' Nestor said. "And this was against one of the greatest competitors over the years in Jonas.''

Nestor is the first Canadian to win a title at the All England Club. He completed a career doubles Grand Slam, adding to championships won with Mark Knowles at the Australian Open in 2002, the U.S. Open in 2004 and the French Open in 2007.

Nestor and Zimonjic hit a combined 19 aces, with Bjorkman only really matching his opponents' aggression and pace when he hit three straight in a love service game to go ahead 5-4 in the third set.

It turned out to be little more than a final hurrah for Bjorkman, whose partners in winning 51 doubles titles - including eight at Grand Slam events - have included Todd Woodbridge, John McEnroe and Pat Rafter. He also won one tournament with a guy by the name of Roger Federer.

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TOO MUCH TIME?: If Rafael Nadal is trying to get under Roger Federer's skin by taking a long time between serves, he better come up with something else.

Federer, the five-time defending champion at the All England Club, will face Nadal in the Wimbledon final for the third straight year Sunday. The day before that showdown, Federer was asked about Nadal's slowdown tactics.

"It used to be irritating,'' Federer said. "Let's say in the early days when I played him the fifth or sixth time, when I played him quite a few times in a row, and I really felt he was playing very slow. I think he's speeded it up actually a little bit since those times. I actually felt like he was playing fair lately.''

The second-ranked Nadal goes through a series of rituals before he serves, bouncing the ball, wiping his hair away from his face, tugging on the back of his shorts.

"It's obviously a fine line, because I think until he gets into position to serve, he takes his 20 seconds, whatever, and then he takes another, 10, 15 seconds until he really serves,'' Federer said. "It's a tricky situation. But the unfortunate part, let's say, is the umpire will always give him a warning, but he will never give him a point penalty. I'm not saying he abuses it, but he never really feels the heat that much.''

Nadal has beaten Federer in the past three French Open finals and leads the head-to-head series 11-6. But Federer is 5-2 on surfaces other than clay, including victories in the past two Wimbledon finals.

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AP Sports Writer Stuart Condie contributed to this report.




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