Oxford's Lucy Brown was thrilled to play at Wimbledon with her good friend Laura Robson in the girls’ doubles this week.

Robson has risen to become an international star, winning the Wimbledon Junior Girls’ Championship at the age of 14.

She has also, as a junior, twice reached the final of the Australian Open in 2009 and 2010, won her first professional event in 2008 and played with Andy Murray for Great Britain in the Hopman Cup.

So it was quite an honour for 17-year-old Brown, from Elsfield, to team up with a player who, in this year’s Wimbledon women’s singles had only gone down 6-3, 7-6 to fourth seed Jelena Jankovic.

“I’ve been friends with Laura since we were young,” Brown said. “It was really nice to play with her, I think this was the first time we’d played doubles together since the Under 12 nationals.”

And although they lost in the first round, not surprisingly, because opponents Timea Babos, from Hungary, and Sloane Stephens, of the USA, the No 4 seeds, had more experience, it was refreshing to see both British girls looking as though they were enjoying it.

That was despite, in Lucy’s case, of the pressure that comes from performing before a big crowd, and knowing it was being televised.

“We really had a lot of fun and both went out to try and enjoy it,” said Brown, who trains at Bisham Abbey with coach Farid Bentaous.

Brown, whose major honour has been to win an ITF Grade 5 event in Libya, said the occasion on the showcourt Court No 5 with Robson as the best experience of her career.

There are clearly things she needs to work on, but her two-handed backhand is a lovely shot, and she was consistently accurate with her serving down the centre from the deuce court onto her opponent’s backhand.

Much of any improvement will come with experience. But she showed she has a bright future if she sticks at it.

So what’s next up for her?

“A $25,000 event in Woking and after that the Junior European Championships in Klos-ters, Switzerland at the end of July,” she said.

Neither will she have the glamour of Wimbledon and playing alongside 2008 champion Robson.

It’s back to the bread and butter!