Robson win could see her enter Sharapova’s world

Three years after Laura Robson was crowned the "new darling" of British tennis after winning the girl's singles at Junior Wimbledon she is preparing for her biggest test yet - a second-round clash with Russian glamour girl Maria Sharapova.
 
The 17-year-old Briton won her first ever senior Grand Slam match on Wednesday, coming from a set down against Angelique Kerber. Her reward is a match against the world's most famous sportswoman and 2004 Wimbledon champion.
 
The draw has catapulted Robson back into the public eye after a couple of seasons of relative calm.
 
When she won the junior title in 2008 as a 14-year-old Robson was hailed as a future superstar and experts lined up to predict great things of her. Perhaps luckily for Robson her transition to the senior tour has been rather more low-key than some of the breathless press coverage predicted and she has not had to grow up in the full glare of the media spotlight.
 
At present the level-headed teenager is ranked 237 in the world, and in her previous two appearances in the senior draw at Wimbledon she lost in the first round. But at 17, she is now the same age as Sharapova when she came from nowhere to win the tournament.
 
If Robson does pull off a shock against Sharapova then it could turn her world upside down.
 
At present her career earnings are a relatively paltry $130,000. Small change for someone like Sharapova, who juggles her tennis career with modelling assingments and fashion design.
 
All the attention has helped the leggy Russian become the richest sportswoman in the world. Even though she has not won a Grand Slam since 2008 and last made an impact at Wimbledon in 2006, Sharapova was named the world's highest-paid female athlete by Forbes in 2010, earning $24.5m. And 18 months ago she signed the most lucrative deal ever for a sportswoman - an eight-year tie-up with Nike worth $70m.
 
Robson, who lives near the All England Club in Wimbledon, can only dream of such things –and for the moment remains level-headed. After her victory over Kerber she tweeted of her excitement at facing Sharapova, but seemed just as thrilled at the prospect of trying on the ridiculous tennis-ball jacket sported by American player Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
 
"I mean, am I rocking it or am I rocking it??!" she asked her 30,000 followers. She will have many more fans than that is she pulls off a victory, and she may have to get used to the modelling, too. ·