It is just two years since Laura Robson, still a teenager, reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and became the first British female tennis player to earn a top 30 ranking since 1987.
Robson will return to Wimbledon as a wild card entrant on Monday against the Russian Evgeniya Rodina, without a world ranking, after spending the past 18 months battling a frustrating injury to her dominant left wrist.
Since winning the junior Wimbledon title as a remarkably assured, unseeded 14 year old in 2008, Robson’s star rose steadily. She won Olympic silver in the mixed doubles alongside Andy Murray in 2012, and there were growing signs the following year – when she reached the fourth round at both the US Open and Wimbledon – that she had added enough consistency and big game temperament to her natural power and shot-making ability to start making serious inroads into the second week of grand slam tournaments.