Fifteen year old Laura Robson handed Wimbledon wild card

Britain’s 15-year-old junior Wimbledon champion Laura Robson will be the youngest player to appear in the women’s tournament since Martina Hingis in 1995 after the All England Club announced they had given her a wild card.

When the  grass-court grand slam begins on June 22, the Londoner will be 15 years, 152 days old, and she will be the twelfth youngest competitor since the professional era began in 1968. Robson, who was born in Melbourne and moved to Britain when she was six, currently divides her time between training and homework.

Robson is ranked 482nd in the world, well below the Lawn Tennis Association’s wild card cut-off point of 250th, but was given a slot via a clause that allows juniors in under “exceptional circumstances.” Her name was expected among the wild cards, as a reward for winning last summer’s junior tournament.

Jennifer Capriati, Steffi Graf, Tracy Austin, Andrea Jaeger and Hingis are among those on the short list of players to have appeared at Wimbledon at a younger age.  Four girl junior champions have gone on to win the main title in the history of Wimbledon. Martina Hingis – who was the youngest at 13 in 1994 – and Amelie Mauresmo are the only two to have done so since 1960.

The All England Club’s decision to award a wild card to another teen girl may cause controversy during the tournament. Michelle Larcher de Brito, a 16-year-old from Portugual, has arguably the loudest grunt in the history of tennis. When Larcher de Brito played at the French Open, an opponent complained to the umpire about the noise on the other side of the net. Larcher de Brito was later booed by the crowd.

Other women’s wild cards were given to American Alexa Glatch, and Britain’s Elena Baltacha, Katie O’Brien, Mel South and Georgie Stoop. Robson and Stoop have a wild card into the doubles.