After a series of false dawns, Laura Robson will make her comeback after 17 months out with injury when she plays in the qualifying event of the Aegon International in Eastbourne this weekend.
The 21-year-old has not played since last year’s Australian Open because of an injury to her left wrist that required surgery just over a year ago. Barring any last-minute setback she will test it out in competition on Saturday, putting her on track to compete at Wimbledon later this month.
Robson had planned to return at last month’s French Open only for a hamstring injury to further delay her comeback but sources inside the Robson camp say her wrist is “great” and she is “in great shape”. Had she asked for it, Robson would surely have been given a wildcard into the main draw in Eastbourne but with a quality field headed by the Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, qualifying was deemed a more sensible and lower-profile way to make her return.
Wrist injuries are notoriously difficult to shake off and Robson will doubtless have noted this week’s news that Argentina’s Juan Martín Del Potro is to have a third operation on a similar injury.
The pair share a surgeon but the Robson camp were bullish on Tuesday and believe that she is 100% ready to return, having trained for several months at the IMG Academy in Florida and then, over the past two weeks, on the grass courts at Roehampton, next door to the National Tennis Centre.
Robson could have used her protected ranking of 58 to get into Wimbledon but since she is not on the entry list she will have to rely on receiving one of the eight wildcards handed out by the All England Club, the first batch of which is due to be confirmed on Wednesday.
