Great Britain’s Laura Robson hasn’t played competitively since April 2019 and now she’s officially hanging up her tennis racquet.
In December 2020, Robson celebrated a return to the tennis court after her latest in the series of surgeries, but that practice session was a miracle in itself and didn’t ignite a resumption of the former world No.27’s career.
Robson’s major successes include a WTA title in Guangzhou, fourth rounds at the US Open and Wimbledon, and a silver medal in mixed doubles at the 2012 London Olympics with Andy Murray. Injuries prevented the British tennis star from achieving her full potential, as she went through a wrist surgery in 2014 and three hip operations in recent years.
The 28-year-old told BBC Sport while announcing retirement:
I went through every possibility of rehab and of surgery.
Robson cried together with her physiotherapists when she realized her body could definitely not handle the pressures of the sport:
It feels weird to say out loud, but I’m done, I’m retired.
I’ve sort of known that for a while because of what I was told by the doctors last year, but I think it just took me so long to say it to myself, which is why it took me so long to say it officially.
Robson was almost the age of Emma Raducanu now when her wrist first become a problem:
I think I’m always going to have the feeling that I could have done more, unfortunately.
I feel like if I had just had another year or two of being healthy, I don’t know what I could have achieved.
Good news is that Robson has accepted her fate and isn’t overthinking her past:
If I keep looking back and thinking ‘what if’, then I can’t move forward.
