WIMBLEDON (AP) -- Britain collected its first Wimbledon singles championship in 24 years Saturday. OK, so it wasn’t the men’s title or the women’s title, but it was a title, nonetheless.

Laura Robson, a 14-year-old who was born in Australia but moved to England when she was 6, won the girls’ title at the All England Club. She beat 16-year-old Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
“Being Wimbledon girls’ champion sounds really good,” Robson said. “It was great today because the crowd were behind me and it was such an experience.
“I didn’t feel relaxed and composed. I thought I was going to be sick when I walked onto court because there were so many people watching. In the second set, I went a bit mad but got it back together and managed to win.”
Robson is the youngest girls’ champion at Wimbledon since Martina Hingis was 13 when she won in 1994, and the first British singles champion at Wimbledon since Annabel Croft won the girls’ title in 1984.
There is no prize money, but Robson hopes the victory on Court 1 will earn her a wild card into next year’s main draw. Last year’s girls’ champion, Urszula Radwanska, lost to runner-up Serena Williams in the second round this year.
“I’d take her down,” Robson jokingly said of Serena Williams, who lost to older sister Venus 7-5, 6-4 in the women’s final on Saturday.
Cheers erupted on Centre Court during the men’s doubles final when news of Robson’s victory was flashed on the scoreboard.
The last British singles player to win a main draw title was Virginia Wade in 1977. Fred Perry, in 1936, was the last British man to win a singles title at Wimbledon.
When an Australian journalist asked Robson at her postmatch news conference whether she felt any connection to her birthplace, the question was greeted by British reporters with shouts of “Go away -- she’s ours!” She then firmly replied, “No.”
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