Despite a run of injuries causing the 28-year-old to call time on her playing career in 2022, Robson is now preparing to take on a new role in tennis, as Tournament Director at the Rothesay Open Nottingham and an additional combined ITF event planned for April.

Robson is no stranger to event operations, having worked with us in the tournament management space over the past 18 months – including onsite at the cinch Championships at The Queen’s Club, Rothesay Open Nottingham and more recently acted as Tournament Director of the women’s ITF 25k event in Loughborough.

We caught up with Laura to chat through her new role, what perspective she can bring to the tournaments as an ex-player and how she’s feeling as she prepares to enter a new chapter in her career.

“It’s different – I’m a lot closer to the “behind the scenes” side of things now, rather than when you just kind of show up as a player and everything’s done and dusted.

“I think I can bring the experience that I’ve developed over years and years of playing different tournaments, I know what suits people and what doesn’t work. We can make small differences here and there that make a big difference across the [event] week. I understand issues that generally come up because they’ve come up millions of times over my career.”

One side of Robson’s role as a Tournament Director, will involve tackling issues and making improvements to how the events are run. We asked Robson what key issues she wants to address in her new role.

“Practice time, nutrition, having a good space to warm up and having plenty of space for your own physio, so private treatment rooms. We have that already at Nottingham, so we’re already on the right track.

“As a venue, Nottingham is perfect – you’ve got everything in one spot. Everyone stays quite central as they’ve got things to do and there’s plenty of restaurants around.

“And good coffee – that’s always important. I always think the WTA and ATP players could write a travel guide on their favourite coffee spots around the world because you somehow unearth a different one every time. There’s a couple in Nottingham that everyone’s a regular at!”

Alongside working as a Tournament Director, Robson has also ventured into the world of broadcasting, having more recently commentated on one of the biggest stages in tennis at the Australian Open in January.

“I’m passionate about the game and I’m passionate about wanting to stay in the mix and give back to the sport that was such a big part of my life. It’s just the natural transition that I’ve made on the broadcasting side, but it’s nice to have the combination of things, and finding that balance and to be honest I really enjoy all of it!

“It’s super fun, I’m constantly learning and that’s what I love the most – I’m always being challenged and having to use my brain a lot”.