Laura Robson Ends Clijsters Career In Style At Flushing Meadows

Laura Robson produced a powerful, battling display at Flushing Meadows to beat three-time US Open champion Kim Clijsters in straight sets 7-6, 7-6. The last time the Belgian had lost in the tournament her conqueror was only nine years old. Robson paid tribute to her opponent after the match: "She's been such a great player for so many years and a role model for all the younger girls coming up and it was so nice coming on tour with people like Kim to look up to. "

Robson went into the match in a confident mood after winning her first round match against American Samantha Crawford in straight sets, 6-3 7-6. Clijsters had also breezed into the second round in her final Grand Slam appearance, beating Victoria Duval 6-3, 6-1. 

In the opening set Robson started nervously and had to save a break point in her first service game before being broken in her second. She came back well though after going 4-1 behind and broke back in the 9th game to stop the Belgian from serving out the set. Robson faltered as she served to take the set into a tie-breaker and put a back-hand wide to give her opponent two set points. However the British youngster produced two big first serves to save both of them. She was forced to survive another one when she double-faulted on the 16th point of the game, only to serve an ace with her next strike. Robson finally sealed the ten minute 12th game to take the opening set into a breaker. 

Robson got an early mini-break but fired a back-hand wide in a point she should have won as the players swapped courts at 3-3. The young Briton netted to leave Clijsters serving at 4-3 as the momentum looked to have changed. The crowd were gradually learning not to rule out Robson as she bounced back to take two consecutive points to give herself a mini-break which she duly consolidated to give herself two set points at 6-4. She closed out the set in style to shock the tournament's sentimental favourite Clijsters and take the lead. 

Robson started the second set well with a comfortable hold and then threatened the Clijsters serve. It then started to appear as though the 18-year-old was feeling the pressure when she served up consecutive double faults to hand the former world number one the break on a plate. But the Olympic mixed doubles silver medallist fought back immediately as she forced Clijsters to net and give her a break point which resulted in the Belgian returning the favour with a double fault to bring the set back on serve. 

The left-handed Brit continued to frustrate Clijsters as she saved two more break points in the 5th game to take a 3-2 lead on serve. The world number 25 was once again forced to replicate Robson as she had to save two break points to level the set. However she continued to look under serious pressure while Robson kept on going for broke, producing plenty of winners. She sealed two easy holds to take a 5-4 lead and make Clijsters serve to stay in the match. She duly held after two deuces before forcing a break point on the Robson serve after an epic rally. Robson missed three great chances to hit winners, including two over-heads, the second of which found the bottom of the net. In the face of adversity the youngster saved the break point before sealing the game with an ace down the middle to grab a 6-5 advantage. 

Robson gave herself two match points courtesy of a magical cross-court back-hand after chasing down a drop-shot. Two big shots from Clijsters saved both as they disappeared in a whisker. Roared on by the crowd she served out as the match went into a second tie-breaker. A stunning back-hand up the line gave the four-time Grand Slam champion an early mini-break, only to net on the second point as the match persisted to swing this way and that. A magnificent cross-court winner ended a point of brutal Robson hitting as the score at the change-over stood at three a-piece.

An unbelievable fore-hand down the line gave Robson her first match point on serve and she took it after Clijsters netted. The Belgian has been a great competitor over the years, but this was a day about the new generation in the form of Great Britain's Laura Robson, as she progressed to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time. 

Sir Chris Hoy Signs Off In Style But Pendleton Misses Out

Team GB's track cyclists won three medals including two gold on the final day of action in the velodrome to take their tally to seven golds, equal with the amount that they managed in Beijing four years ago. Sir Chris Hoy and Laura Trott stormed to take their second wins of the Games in the keirin and omnium respectively. The gold medals took Great Britain and Northern Ireland up to 22 gold medals in total and strengthened their stranglehold on third place in the process.

After Hoy and Pendleton had easily progressed into their finals Laura Trott was up in her 500 metre time trial, the last event of the omnium. She went into it needing to finish three places above American Sarah Hammer to take the gold after being pushed back into third place in the scratch race earlier in the afternoon. She absolutely went for it in the time trial and won it in a time of 35.110 seconds ahead of Annette Edmondson. Hammer could only finish in fourth place behind Sanchez of France to give Trott a dramatic victory and gold medal. It was the 20-year-old's second win of the Games after also taking gold with the women's team pursuit. Thanks to Trott's great performance the stage was perfectly set for the elder statesmen to take centre stage.

Pendlton faced old rival Anna Meares in the final in what was always going to be a classic. The Australian 2004 Olympic time trial winner won the sprint world title in 2011 but lost it this year to the Brit in Melbourne. Meares was hoping to beat Pendleton this on her own patch this time. The first race was highly controversial as Meares appeared to elbow Pendleton, forcing her out of her lane in the process. Pendleton won by a tyre width but was then relegated for leaving her lane. Despite some heated discussions in the centre of the track the decision stood and the Brit faced having to come back from one-nil down. It wasn't to be for the queen of the track in her last ever race as she failed to hold off Meares who stormed through to take her second Olympic gold, equalling Pendleton's tally.

The last to ride for Britain was Sir Chris Hoy as he set about surpassing Sir Steve Redgrave's total of five Olympic golds and levelling Bradley Wiggins's total amount of seven medals. The hunky Scot went out behind the pace-bike in third place before making his move almost as soon as the pacing bike made way. With still three laps to go Hoy stormed away from the field but German Maximilian Levy passed him with less than a lap to go. In the face of adversity Hoy immediately fought back as Levy struggled as a result of covering more ground and the home favourite came through in fine colours to win his record sixth gold medal.

It was a fitting swansong for one of Britain's greatest ever sportsmen and at the age of 36 he confirmed that this would be his last Games: "I'm in shock but this is just surreal and this what I wanted, to win gold in front of the home crowd. After seeing my team-mates win gold I wanted to come to the party. Unbelievable. The perfect end to my Olympic career. You won't see more, not in the Olympics as I'm 99.9% sure that I won't be competing in Rio."

Britons Going Great Guns at Wimbledon

In the first two days at Wimbledon 2012 the usual suspects have produced some excellent performances. On day one six-time winner Roger Federer ran out a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victor over Albert Ramos to equal his lowest amount of games lost in a Grand Slam match while defending champion Novak Djokovic started with a comfortable straight sets win over Juan Carlos Ferrero. In the women's draw there were wins for the likes of Maria Sharapova, Sam Stosur, Li Na and Agnieszka Radwanska. 

Into day two and the favourites continued to come out on top. Rafael Nadal won in straight sets after an early scare against Thomaz Belucci and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Lleyton Hewitt. Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka also sealed easy passages into round two. For the last fifteen years or so the home fans at the All England Club have been used to only really having one player to cheer for; at first Tim Henman and now Andy Murray. However there have been signs over the first two days of this year's tournament that that trend might be about to change. For the first time since 2006 five Britons have advanced to the second round of the singles draws and there were other encouraging displays. 

Andy Murray did what was expected of him against a depleted Nikolay Davydenko on Centre Court in an impressive manner; winning 6-1, 6-1, 6-4. He will be hopeful of at least reaching a fourth successive Wimbledon semi-final despite having a tough quarter of the draw. He will probably next face big hitting Croatian Ivo Karlovic in what will be a testing encounter for him. Nevertheless it is not Murray that the British fans will be really pleased with over the last couple of days. 

After an epic battle out on Court 14 British number two James Ward came out on top against Spain's world number 36 Pablo Andujar. After twice coming back from a set down he proceeded to drop 3-0 behind in the deciding set against a player ranked 137 places above him. He sealed an impressive hold in the next game before breaking back. Unbelievably he ended up taking six games on the trot to run out a 4-6, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 winner. The crowd on the small court really got behind their man and he used this to his advantage as he really riled his opponent who even complained to the umpire about a clearly correct line call. Ward showed the form that took him to the 2011 Queens semi-finals with a good first serve and excellent cross-court backhand that fired all match. His fore-hand looked very iffy at times but he still produced some huge point-clinching shots. He meets American Mardy Fish in the second round in what will be a huge task, especially after playing for over three hours today. But he will already be happy after taking his first ever win in the Wimbledon main draw. 

British number one woman Anne Keothavong cruised to 6-3, 6-3 win over Spanish player Pous-Tio to take her place in the next round where she may face tenth seed Sara Errani. She never looked in trouble and will now be looking forward to trying to reach the third round for the first time. One British woman who has reached that stage before is previous national number one Elena Baltacha back in 2002. She has suffered with inconsistent form this season slipping from world number 50 to 101 and is now her country's third best. It looked as though that would continue when she dropped the first set to Italian player Karin Knapp. However, aided by an apparent Knapp injury she came through 4-6, 6-4, 6-0. She faces an uphill climb to match her 2002 effort as she next faces defending champion Petra Kvitova. Despite this these two women have done what was hoped for them and both have showed many positives to prove that they are not going backwards. 

The younger generation of British tennis is also causing some excitement in London. Youngster Oliver Golding showed great fight in losing in four sets to Igor Andreev despite winning more games and points than his opponent. Josh Goodall lost in four sets to exit at the first stage for the fifth year in a row and would now seem unlikely to be given another wildcard next year. Still in the competition is Jamie Baker who is a set and a break down to former finalist Andy Roddick. He showed great skill in taking the first set to a tie-break and will complete his big match tomorrow on Court One. 

The young women have also showed plenty of promise for the future. Since she won the Wimbledon 2008 girls singles title at the age of just 14 Laura Robson has struggled despite reaching the second round here last year. But this year she has found some good form and last week broke in the world's top 100 for the first time in her fledgling career. She seemed to be carrying on her good form against former French Open winner Francesca Schiavone when she breezed into a one set lead with some big serves and some fizzing fore-hands. The 32-year-old Italian showed her experience though to take the next two sets 6-4 to progress. Robson was clearly upset but was still happy with her performance: "I definitely believed that I could win. I think I was just trying to go for too much because she was getting more balls back and I was just trying to stay the aggressive player in the point, keep the rallies short."

Twenty-year-old Guernsey girl Heather Watson has always shone at these major tournaments and has regularly qualified in the last couple of years. After reaching the second round at the French Open just two weeks ago she came into this tournament full of confidence and just three places outside the world's top 100.  She faced a much higher ranked rival in Czech world number 52 Iveta Benesova. But Watson defied the odds as she produced a crushing display that was reminiscent of her first round win at Roland Garros to blow aside Benesova 6-2, 6-1. She has a very winnable second round match against American Jamie-Lee Hampton. 

With all these women hopeful of reaching the London Olympics they are all trying to better each other's results and this is being reflected in the positive outcomes. Fed Cup coach Judy Murray seems to have had a good influence on the women while James Ward appears to be relishing in his status as the Lawn Tennis Association's male number one. Whatever happens in the next round the future looks bright for the home country of tennis's oldest major tournament.