Either Michelle Larcher de Brito or Laura Robson, both are very used to playing on the big stages, especially on grass courts. The Portuguese had already reached the third round at Wimbledon twice, defeating Maria Sharapova in one and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the other one. She also reached the third round in Birmingham last year where she defeated Ana Ivanovic, ranked 6th at that time. The British won the Wimbledon Juniors title when she was only fourteen and reached the fourth round there in 2013. Laura Robson was already ranked 27th on WTA and Michelle 76th.
First set with very few rallies
The first set started with the players holding their serves easily, the first deuce of the match appeared when Laura Robson was serving to level the first set at 2 and Michelle Larcher de Brito was able to get the first break of the match to lead 3-1. De Brito, who until this part of the set was serving very well, got broken right back. In a typical WTA match, the Portuguese broke Robson's serve again with an amazing return. The two players were returning much better than serving and Laura was missing too many easy balls in the middle of the court, Michelle had 3 game points but Laura broke again the Portuguese's serve. The next game was deciding and Michelle broke again but this time, she was serving for the set. Everyone was thinking if it was supposed to be now or if she would get broken, but the Portuguese saved two break points and held her serve to win the first set 6-3.
Second tight set
The second set started very well to Laura who was aiming for a comeback. The British started dominating the points and aiming for the lines to be up a break 4-1 on the second set. Larcher de Brito was trying to stay in the set but Laura was raising her level on the return and on the service game. After arguing with the umpire due to the bad calls of the line judges team, Robson let Larcher de Brito do her job and from a 4-1 up she was 5-4 down. Larcher de Brito was serving for the match but as the match promised, the drama would continue as the Wimbledon Junior champion break the Portuguese's serve again.
There were a lot of breaks all match and the 11th game of the second set was no exception. Laura was leading this game 30-0 when she committed a double-fault that gave Michelle the hope that she needed. At the third break point, the Portuguese broke Robson's serve again and was serving for the match for a second time. After so many breaks, Michelle Larcher de Brito held her serve at love to win the match 6-3 7-5 in 1 hour and 26 minutes and book a place in the second round.
Stats
Laura Robson fired eight aces and hit five double faults. Michelle Larcher de Brito aced Robson two times and hit four double faults. Michelle put 67 percent of her first serves in and won 63 percent of those points. RobsonLaura had a lower percentage of first serves in - 55 percent There were 18 break points in the whole match, The Portuguese faced eight and saved four and the Brit faced 10 and saved 4 too.
What's next?
Michelle Larcher de Brito will now play against Monica Puig, the fourth seed, for a place in the quarterfinals. The match takes place tomorrow at 12 p.m GMT.
Laura Robson will play the qualifying draw of Birmingham, a WTA Premier.