SAM SMITH, the last British woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, sees no reason why Laura Robson cannot match her exploits at the All England Club this year.

Robson boosted the morale of the home crowd at SW19 on Tuesday when she defeated tenth seed Maria Kirilenko to be the only British woman to make the second round.

The victory meant Robson became the first British woman to beat a top-ten player at the All England Club since Smith overcame Conchita Martinez 15 years ago.

Smith then progressed to the fourth round – a feat that has not been matched by a home-grown player since.

Given that she has already dispatched Kirilenko, Robson is a big favourite to beat Mariana Duque-Marino today and then Peng Shuai in the third round.

‘‘She has got the potential to go way further than the fourth round, whether it be this year or in the future,’’ said Smith, who is working as a pundit at this year’s Championships.

‘‘The worst thing she can do is look at the draw and think it has opened. There are still some pretty good names in there.’’ Robson has gone through a roller coaster 12 months since she claimed silver at the Olympics with Andy Murray.

The Australian-born star has defeated Li Na, Kim Clijsters and Petra Kvitova this season, but has struggled against some of the lesserknown players on tour.

Little is known about Duque-Marino, a qualifier from Bogota, but she did overcome German Julia Goerges in the previous round.

Smith hopes Robson does not take her opponent lightly.

‘‘It will be different for her tomorrow compared to her first match,’’ Smith said.

‘‘Duque-Marino beat a very good player in the first round so she is obviously playing pretty well.

‘‘It won’t be just a shoo-in.

Everyone thinks: ’oh it’s just a qualifier from Colombia so it will be easy’, but it won’t.’’