Laura Robson: She will go to the Ball...

... and then it's back to school for Laura Robson, winner of the Wimbledon Girls' Singles. But how will she cope with the pressures of her new-found fame?

Striding from a limousine to the doors of Mayfair's Intercontinental Hotel, a blaze of photographers' flash bulbs lighting the way, there can be no denial of 14-year-old Laura Robson's status as British sport's newest and youngest hope.

Seven days ago, few outside the tightly-knit world of competitive junior tennis had ever heard of the south London teenager. Her thrilling victory at the Wimbledon Girls' Singles final on Saturday – the first solo Briton to win since Annabel Croft took the same title in 1984 – put paid to that anonymity and catapulted the GCSE student, not 15 until next January, into the uncompromising glare of the public eye.

After her agent spent yesterday being bombarded with offers of endorsements and interview requests, the youngster was looking forward to celebrating her famous win amid the glamorous surroundings of Wimbledon's Champions Ball alongside the sport's most bankable stars.

But so rapid is her achievement and so sudden her newfound fame that leading figures in the game were warning that the level of media interest in the girl who only qualified for a wildcard place in this year's juniors tournament could backfire.

Virginia Wade, the last Briton to win a senior Wimbledon singles title way back in the Jubilee year of 1977, pointed out that recent history was littered with the names of young stars who never cut it on the professional circuit.

"The media want to latch on to someone who shows promise but this upsets the applecart with the British players," said Wade. "She's only 14 and has won junior Wimbledon but I can see people thinking that if she gets in next year she's going to win it."

Her mentor Carl Maes, the head of the women's game at the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), where the young player has been the star pupil at the new National Tennis Centre, was growing alarmed. "We need to manage expectations. We are desperate for a new star and this player is exceptional, but there are no guarantees that in two years she will still be exceptional," he said.

Those that have come into contact with the youngster believe she has appeared equally as confident handling pressures off court as on it. Fans are looking forward to renaming Murray Mound and cheering on the new star from Robson Ridge.

Not only was she able to joke of Women's Singles victor Venus Williams this weekend, threatening to "take her down" at the next Wimbledon, she also revealed how she wanted Russian star Marat Safin to escort her to the post-tournament bash – only to be let down, in the nicest possible way, in a pre-final good luck message from her 28-year-old pin-up. "I think he's a bit old for me anyway," she concluded.

She remains very much the typical teenager – looking forward to a Pizza Hut meal with her family to celebrate victory before knuckling back down to work.

Speaking yesterday she said: "I'm getting ready for the ball. Apparently I get put in the room with a rack full of dresses and I get to pick one ... And of course there is school work – mum says there's always room for that."

Her mother Kathy, a former professional basketball player, was planning to remind her daughter she would still be required to make her bed and unload the dishwasher. The future, she said, will be about "tournaments and working hard. It's a lonely place out there, and she has to cope with that".

Her many non-tennis-playing friends bombarded her with text messages after beating Thailand's Noppawan Lertcheewakarn. She enjoys hobbies including playing the saxophone, horse-riding, cooking and shopping, but few teens strive with such intensity to achieve a goal.

Born in Melbourne to Australian parents, Ms Robson arrived in Britain aged six – to the chagrin of the Australian media which greeted her victory with complaints that she had made the wrong choice of country.

Living just a few minutes walk from the hallowed grounds of the All England Club and close to the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, where she rubbed shoulders with the likes of Andy Murray, her family educated her at home to give her more time to concentrate on her game.

As well as the support of the LTA, she enjoys the backing of a blue chip City law firm and is on the books of Octagon, one of the game's biggest agencies. Since the age of nine she has been trained by Dutch coach Martijn Bok and has a team of experts advising her.

Chief among these is Martina Hingis, who was the youngest-ever Wimbledon champion aged 16. Laura has learnt both what it means to win and how to keep a sense of perspective – they joke that the best tournament to win is the Stuttgart Open where the winner drives away in a new Porsche.

The young Briton has also learnt to control a temper which surfaced last year when she lost a final in Poland, where she flung her runner's-up trophy to the ground, smashing it. She admits it was "not a high point".

No one knows what might happen in the years to come – anything from love to injury could intervene. But the world will be watching.