Laura Robson powers into third round at Wimbledon 2013

Laura Robson celebrates victory over Mariana Duque-Marino at Wimbledon. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

It's good to see Laura Robson laugh, because when she's happy, her racket hums, the court gets bigger and we get to see the very best of her expansive, high-risk tennis.

When she beat Kim Clijsters at the US Open, she was smiling in the changeover breaks, humming along to the stadium music. When she beat Li Na in the next match, again she got caught up in the crowd entertainment, feet tapping in rhythm with her mood, even though she later admitted it probably was not a great idea. At Wimbledon on Friday, relaxed and angst-free, she ignored a few not-so-funny errors to beat the Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino in straight sets and later had a roomful of reporters in hysterics.

Asked what she thought about speculation that Andy Murray might "get it on" with Serena Williams, the only teenager in the top 50 had a proper giggle fit. "That's interesting wording," she said. "I think everyone would watch that."

There was more chuckling about One Direction, and someone called Harry from this apparently popular beat combo (doing rather well in the charts), who follows her on Twitter. It seems Harry's devotion to Laura has confused his 13m followers (or "Directioners" as they are known). "I looked in my replies," she said, "and it was just, like, thousands of these messages, saying, 'Who is she?'. I was, like, wetting myself because it was so funny. I think I've gained 20,000 followers and they have no idea who I am!"

So, a career in stand-up beckons – as does the third round, where Robson makes her debut on Saturday. When she gets back to business, there will be serious work to do against the dangerous New Zealander Marina Erakovic, who has beaten her on grass and who put Elena Baltacha out of this year's French Open. A grass-courter with good touch at the net through her doubles, she will pose more varied questions than did Duque-Marino, who showed little except a muscular baseline game before Robson's booming forehand forced a final error from deep to win 6-4, 6-1 under the roof on Centre Court.

If mood matters, the one Robson engenders is powerful. The packed arena was slow to get into it, but, once this physical if ragged encounter hit a beat, they were there for the Londoner, encouraging her when she lost her way occasionally (especially on serve) and rose to the rhythm as she worked over Duque-Marino in the second set.

The crowd were not as consistently boisterous as the loud party lot who roared her and Andy Murray on to Olympic silver in the same setting last summer, but the chorus was Sharapova-level at the end of a match that at one point looked as if it might get stuck in a mess of unforced errors, and was all over in an hour and 13 minutes. That's how she likes it.

Robson is also playing doubles and mixed doubles (as is the oldest player in the tournament, Kimiko Date-Krumm, 42, so this is about enthusiasm as much as fitness), and she says: "I'm very happy to play [all three]. It's grass, so you're never going to have an unbelievably long match and if you do, the points tend to be quite short anyway. It's not overly taxing."

That's encouraging. It would be doubly so if Robson's hunger for the fray included a bit more work on her movement, which is better than it was but still can be a liability if she is stretched laterally. The few times Duque-Marino hurt her, it was wide on either flank, rarely when she chipped or dropped it short.

The other minor concern for Robson is her serve. She landed 23 of 48 first attempts in the box, which is poor, but was still able to rescue the point on second serve 20 of those times. Her ball toss is not great, as she admits, but when she connects the ball flies furiously. "I was having a little bit of a timing problem with my serve throughout the whole match," she said. "It wasn't to do with nerves. I thought I handled it well. I managed to break her at the end of the first set, which was big."

Almost as important as the mechanical component is the mental, and that's in excellent shape. The roof helped, she said.

"In terms of playing, it's a little bit faster, tends to be a tad more slippery because of the humidity. The crowd is a lot louder, which is great. It's really exciting playing under the roof because you feel so much more of the atmosphere. I think I'm handling it pretty well so far. I've had a fair few matches on big stadiums now where I've handled the crowd support perfectly fine.

"I love when people get involved. Sometimes they do, like, a massive groan if I hit a double-fault [there were three, two in the same game when she was serving for the first set at 5-3], but I'm doing it as well. So, we're just living it together."

All going in the One Direction, then. British tennis needs Robson to do well for a number of reasons, to enjoy her smiling ascent, obviously, to brighten up glum summer days at Wimbledon and to take the heat off Murray.

So, what about that Andy-Serena match, then? "Yeah, we would all watch it," she says. "But I don't think it will happen."

I'm pretty sure she was talking about the tennis match.

Credits: guardian.co.uk