Laura Robson announces retirement from tennis at the age of 28 after suffering from injury hell

Former Britain No. 1 Laura Robson, who burst onto the scene as a junior at Wimbledon when she was 14, has retired from tennis after a few years of injury

Former Britain No. 1 Laura Robson has announced her retirement from tennis aged just 28 after struggling to get over her injury woes.

Robson emerged when she won juniors at Wimbledon when she was 14. Four years later, she won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics after playing in mixed doubles with Andy Murray.

As a teenager, she reached a career-high world number 27, but never reached the last eight of a Grand Slam. Her best performances came at the 2012 US Open and then the following year at SW19, where she reached the fourth round of each tournament.

However, her career was derailed when she underwent wrist surgery in 2014 and has endured three hip surgeries in recent years. Speaking to BBC Sport, the Australian-born star said: “I’ve gone through all the avenues of rehab and surgery.

“I had another hip surgery and probably the best rehab block of my life – I went to the best specialists and had some incredible people to work with just to get me back on the court – and then when I had the second Times struck, I just knew.

“It feels weird to say it out loud, but I’m done, I’m retired. I’ve known this for a while because the doctors told me last year, but I think it just took me so long to tell myself which is why it took so long to say it officially.”

With her natural ball power and big-match mentality, Robson quickly became a star and quickly rose through the senior ranks, reaching the fourth round at Flushing Meadows in 2012 before enjoying Olympic glory that same year.

The following season she had her best run at Wimbledon before being beaten by Kaia Kanepi. But the wrist injury began to trouble her later in 2013 and kept her away for most of the next two years.

She returned in 2016 but failed to regain the same form as in her teenage years and failed to climb back into the top 100. Her hip problems came to the fore in 2018 and she underwent her first surgery – she admitted she was thinking about retirement – before briefly returning the following year, with her last game being at Sunderland in April 2019.

Robson went under the knife again later that year and for a third time last January and has now admitted defeat in her efforts to continue her tennis career: “I think overall I’m a much nicer person after going through all that ‘ she said of the 28-year-old, who has embarked on a new career in TV and radio.

“If I keep looking back and thinking ‘what if’, I’m not moving forward. I think I will always feel like I could have done more, unfortunately. I feel like if I had just had another year or two to be healthy I don’t know what I could have accomplished.

“But I’m really proud of the Olympics, of playing in the Fed Cup – playing for your country in any way was always one of my favorite weeks of the year – and I think playing Wimbledon and the US Open was those time when i was good I will have those memories forever.”