TWO weeks ago, Laura Robson was sitting GCSE exams in English language and literature.

Yesterday, as she made her Grand Slam debut in front of 4,000 spectators on Wimbledon’s number two court, the British 15-year-old underwent a very different kind of test.

You can say what you like about the state of education in this country, but if this is what passes for GCSE PE these days, exams are definitely getting more difficult.

Sadly, Robson was unable to pass with flying colours, going down 3-6 6-4 6-2 to Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, but on the evidence of her maiden Wimbledon appearance as a senior, it will not be long before the reigning girls’ junior champion is graduating into the elite.

Andy Murray is out to make history this fortnight, but even if the Scotsman fails to end a 73-year wait for a homegrown men’s singles champion, this could still prove a landmark tournament for British tennis.

Martina Hingis was the last 15-year-old to compete in the main draw at Wimbledon, and she went on to win five Grand Slam titles. It is far too early to suggest that Robson is capable of doing the same, but after she came within a whisker of beating a player ranked 456 places above her, the teenager’s future is undoubtedly bright.

Indeed, perhaps the biggest compliment to emerge from yesterday’s performance is that it is impossible to believe that Robson is a 15-year-old at all.

She doesn’t look 15, with her muscular figure standing in marked contrast to the stick-thin physique of Hantuchova, a player who has been forced to deny that she is anorexic on a number of occasions in the past.

Wayne Rooney seemed to skip adolescence, emerging as a man rather than a boy when he burst into Everton’s first team at the age of 16, and Robson appears to have made a similarly speedy transition to womanhood. It is probably just as well, with women’s tennis now every bit as attritional as the game played by the men.

If Robson doesn’t look like a 15-year-old, then she doesn’t much sound like one either.

Her performance in the postmatch press conference was every bit as polished as her display on the court, with potentially testing questions about grunting, pay disparities and Hantuchova’s alleged time wasting batted away in the effortless manner of a routine forehand volley.

The guard only dropped once, when Robson admitted her biggest disappointment of the last two weeks was the end of the second series of Gossip Girl. You can take the 15-year-old out of her living room, but you can’t make her turn off terrible American TV.

So she doesn’t look like a 15- year-old, she doesn’t sound like a 15-year-old, and sure as hell doesn’t play like a 15-yearold either.

From the moment she won the opening point of the match with an ace down the middle, Robson showcased an array of attacking shots that confirmed the all-round strength of her game.

Her ability to hit winners off either flank was particularly impressive, with a strong whipped forehand complimenting a drilled doublehanded backhand that caused Hantuchova problems throughout.

The strength of Robson’s ground strokes enabled her to break in Hantuchova’s very first service game, and with the winners continuing to come, particularly when the teenager was able to attack down the line, the first set was done and dusted in a little over 35 minutes.

Things got even better when Robson produced an excellent running smash to break in the fifth game of the second set, but with former world number five Hantuchova reeling, the effects of inexperience set in.

As any top-level performer will attest, setting up a landmark victory is one thing - actually achieving it is quite another.

So with the winning line in sight, Robson’s game began to become ragged. The serve that had been so potent a weapon in the opening set became erratic at best, erroneous at worst.

Robson was broken four times in the final two sets, and on each occasion, the game ended with a double fault. As her coach, Martijn Bok, will no doubt be telling her this morning, pushing even harder can often be the worst policy to adopt.

Game management can be learned, it is the presence of the raw materials that counts at so early a stage of a player’s career and, just like Murray before her, Robson has emerged into the senior ranks with all the attributes demanded of a potential champion.

This time next week, she will return to the juniors to defend the title she won so thrillingly 12 months ago.

Then, it will be back to the classroom for another round of GSCEs.