After making it to the second week for the first time, Laura Robson failed to set up a potential dream match with either Serena Williams or Sabine Lisicki as she was beaten by Kaia Kanepi 7-6 7-5 on Court 1.
After beating the world number 10 Maria Kirilenko in straight sets and coming through her second round in comfortable fashion, there was a certain element of expectancy in the court 1 crowd despite Robson nearly crashing out in straight sets on Saturday against Marina Erakovic.
Robson was aiming to become the first British female quarter finalist since Jo Durie in 1984, so was there some pressure? Yes.
Both players started the game with nerves, Robson similar to her third round match was unable to find the court in her opening to games with her forehand lacking in control, but she managed to take the first game to deuce and put some early pressure on her opponent, who in herself was aiming to make it to the quarters for the second time at Wimbledon.
Robson held her serve comfortably and she was the one who looked more likely to break as Kanepi was failing to get the ball over the net.
As expected Robson did break in the eighth game, with her forehand starting to produce some wonderful shots, suddenly she was serving for the set.
However, nerves got to Robson, and to be fair it was no surprise as this was the furthest she had been and at 19 years old, nerves were expected. She was broke straight back and Kanepi went on to hold her own serve to make it 6-5. Robson herself held this time and took the first set to a tiebreak.
Robson, having taken the first 3 points of the tie-break found herself in a very comfortable position, she took it to 5-2, with Kanepi to serve twice to take it to 5-4 which she did. All Robson now had to do was hold her two serves and she would take the first set. But once again the pressure got to her and Kanepi's forehand was becoming increasingly threatening. The match went into the break at 6-6, Kanepi came out and held her serve giving her the set point and she got it when Robson failed to return a powerful Kanepi shot to give her opponent the first set.
From there it seemed like Robson was fighting a losing battle, there were signs of a comeback but Kanepi's serve was coming at the perfect times, furthermore her forehand was too powerful for the 19 year old.
However, Robson was hanging in there, getting a break point midway through the set but Kanepi's serve again proving decisive. At 5-5 the second set looked as though it was going for another tie-break before Kanepi's fierce forehand again did the trick and proved too much for Robson, who may have been starting to feel the strains of a tough first week.
Kanepi broke Robson in the 11th game to make it 6-5, serving for the match. She gave herself two match points at 40-15 but Robson kept fighting and took the game to deuce. With few dreaming a comeback was on, Kanepi would serve an ace at every time it needed to be served. Taking it back to deuce twice, Robson couldn't return the Kanepi serve and in the end it became too much for the young Brit. Kanepi won the game after Robson's shot went long and the Estonian set up a quarter final match with either Serena Williams or Sabine Lisicki.
For Robson, it was two better than last year but with many years left, the British hopefuls can expect to see her back here next year and in the years to come as Robson holds great prospect to go all the way in the future.
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