Laura’s tennis career would be separate from her family life, which would remain normal, and Kathy would be supportive but not pushy. It was largely as a result of her mother’s excellently practical attitude that Laura would grow into the remarkably grounded and balanced young lady she is today.
She would go after glory with everything she had, but she would also always know that she had a life to live ‘off the courts’ too. Her loving and supportive family would be there to both applaud and console her, and at the end of each day, whether she’d done well or things had gone badly, she would return home to the same house and do the same household chores that she always had.
Other young tennis players haven’t been so lucky. Countless pushy tennis parents, over the years, have been the cause of numerous deeply ingrained emotional issues that have blighted their children’s careers – and their lives. And, although some would say that it is this kind of backing that produces world-class players, surely many might argue that it is too high a price to pay for professional recognition.
‘It’s a huge issue on the junior circuit,’ says former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash. ‘Parents being very aggressive, very abusive, cheating.’
Richard Krajicek, from Holland, another former champion, suffered mercilessly as a result of his father’s unreasonable behaviour.
‘If I didn’t practise well my dad would make me run home behind the car,’ he says. ‘Once he was upset with me and he spanked me pretty good. I’d just come back from the States and he didn’t know about jetlag. He thought I’d tanked the match, that I didn’t try.’
Krajicek struggled emotionally and physically because of the relationship, adding: ‘A few days later he said to me: “I’ve heard about this jetlag, I shouldn’t have done it – but all the other times you deserved it.”’
This gives a heartbreaking insight into the pressure that only parents can put on their children.
Between the ages of 20 and 30, Krajicek didn’t speak to his father, after finally learning to stand up for himself.
The Dutchman won Wimbledon aged 24.
Krajicek’s own son is now playing junior tennis, and as a father he has a totally different attitude to his boy’s career.
While Krajicek junior was playing under-12s tennis, his father noticed his son getting upset by a series of cheating opponents, despite the fact that some of them were his friends. Richard understands all too well the reason why the other children were resorting to underhand tactics.
He says: ‘I told him that, although his opponent was a friend, he’d rather have problems with you than lose the match and have problems at home.’
Showing where his priorities lie, he adds: ‘Maybe the way I approach it now my son is going to have a good relationship with me but he’s going to be a terrible tennis player.’
Kathy Robson’s determination to put the welfare of her daughter and that of the whole family before Laura’s tennis career is all the more commendable because pushy parents are actually more usually associated with women’s tennis than with male players.
It’s a trend that was begun by the father of Suzanne Lenglen, the flamboyant French player who is widely recognised as the first female tennis celebrity. Coached rigorously by her father, he controlled every aspect of her training and devised monotonous techniques, such as laying a handkerchief down at different positions on the court, and repeatedly forcing her to hit it with her racket.
At all Lenglen’s games her father sat within earshot of her and loudly reproved his daughter for the slightest of errors.
It paid off: Lenglen won 8 Grand Slam singles titles and 31 Championships between 1919 and 1926. In those seven years she lost only one match.
But his actions set a sadly dangerous precedent.
In more recent times, four-time Grand Slam winner Mary Pierce is known as much for her father Jim’s abusive behaviour towards her and her opponents as for her tennis prowess. Mary now admits that Jim was physically abusive towards her while coaching her as a youngster, once even shouting: ‘Mary, kill the bitch!’ while watching his daughter play in a junior match.
When she turned 18, Mary finally found the courage to break away from her father, aided by the Women’s Tennis Council, the governing body of the women’s circuit.
Jim was subsequently banned from the 1993 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Tour, and Mary eventually had to get a restraining order against her father to prevent him from attending any more of her matches.
‘It’s like a weight off me,’ she said at the time. ‘When I miss a shot it’s not the end of the world anymore.’
At the height of her game, Serbian tennis ace Jelena Dokic also struggled to cope with the behaviour of her father, who was also her coach, who displayed constant outbreaks of aggression.
Instances of this included stomping on a journalist’s mobile phone at Wimbledon, claiming that the draw was rigged at the Australian Open, calling members of the Edgbaston Priory Club ‘Nazis’, and threatening the Australian Ambassador to Serbia with a rocket launcher.
Dokic eventually parted ways with her father, Damir. In 2011, she informed the press that he wouldn’t be at the Australian Open, admitting: ‘He can’t watch my matches because he gets too stressed’.
This was somewhat of an understatement.
American coach Nick Bollettieri has long experienced the detrimental effect that parents can have on their offspring, when they act as coaches. ‘Having mum and dad so closely involved is not the most productive route to success,’ he has diplomatically said. ‘Too close a relationship in terms of sport, more often than not, proves a negative.’
There are exceptions, like Serena and Venus Williams’s mother and father, Oracene and Richard, and Andy and Jamie Murray’s mother, Judy. But, on the whole, pushy parents are more often than not a hindrance to their children’s success.
‘There have been plenty of examples where parents have really pushed an individual and that isn’t so healthy,’ says Tim Henman. ‘In an ideal world, the passion and the drive should come from the player.’
It’s clear that Kathy Robson made the decision to leave Laura’s career to the experts, opting instead for providing stoic support and firm gentle persuasion.
It would prove to be a winning combination.
Despite the decision to remain firmly on British soil for her training, Kathy still wanted the best coaching for her daughter. Teaming up with British coach Alan Jones was a natural first step towards glory.
Jones had an impressive track record. In the 1980s, he had guided Jo Durie to win the Wimbledon girls’ title and she had gone on to become one of the top five tennis players in the world.
No Brit had won the girls’ title since.
Alan Jones could see Laura’s obvious talent, but in his opinion it was another of her qualities that stood out.
‘My wife and I have had plenty of young players of school age pass through our house over the years and they’ve had one thing in common – it’s impossible