15-year-old Laura Robson delighted the centre court crowd at the Tradition Nottingham Masters, despite losing her opening match.
The youngster was cheered on by the crowd who'd come to catch a glimpse of the girl who was the first Briton to win the Wimbledon girls' title since 1984
Playing her first match of the event against Ukrainian Olga Savchuk Laura was unlucky to lose, going down 7-6 (4), 6-3, 10-2 to the higher ranked, more experienced girl.
Laura will play two more matches against Savchuk, on Saturday and Sunday, and the grass court time she gets at Nottingham will be invaluable as she prepares to become the youngest ever player to appear in the women's tournament at Wimbledon since Martina Hingis in 1995.
"Playing here is the start of her preparations for Wimbledon," said mum Kathy. "These matches are very important.
"The surface here is fantastic, but it's very different to when she played here when she was ten. Only a few people watched her back then."
"She's looking forward to playing in the senior event at Wimbledon, she's very excited about it, taking on the big girls.
Laura lost the first set against Olga on a tie-break, before hitting back in the second, winning 6-3. The the deciding third set tie-break didn't start well, at 4-0 down Laura hit a double-fault and Savchuk was quick to pounce on the mistake to win the set 10-2.
Robson will get a chance to build on that narrow defeat when she plays Savchuk again on Saturday.