Laura Robson, the 14-year-old Wimbledon girls' singles champion, was born in Melbourne to Australian parents; Johanna Konta was born in Sydney to Hungarian parents. Robson now plays for Great Britain and Konta is about to do so. Tennis is littered with stories of players dropping the nation of their birth to join one where the grass grows greener - but is this morally or ethically proper?

Greg Rusedski was born in Canada (something he was never allowed to forget despite reaching No 4 in the world and the US Open final of 1997), Alex Bogdanovic in the former Yugoslavia, Elena Baltacha in Kiev, Ukraine, Anne Keothavong in Hackney (though her parents came from Laos). So it is not without precedent that players born overseas end up representing Britain by a fluke of fate, a relocation of parents' workplace or simply because a loophole is discovered and vaulted through. It happens in many other countries as well.

There have been recent suggestions in the media that as Robson's UK passport only came through four months ago, it was some kind of devilish conspiracy to make sure she was British in time for Wimbledon and to paint a rosier picture of the British scene than is generally regarded as the case in these days of unrestrained (and quite frankly anomalous) target setting.

I am reassured that such stories are wide of the mark, that the process was done with complete transparency and fully in accord with the rules of the International Tennis Federation. Laura received a "special exemption" from the ITF to play in international competition for Great Britain before she was officially "British."

Whether that means the rules need to be re-visited - for instance, should a player be allowed to represent another country when the passport process is being undertaken, or not until the whole convoluted transaction is completed? - is another consideration. It does all seem particularly unseemly. And now we have the case of 17-year-old Konta, who is pictured on the Tennis Australia website playing at this year's Junior Wimbledon under the heading "Aussies in action" but is being coached at the Win Tennis Academy at Bisham Abbey and whose British diplomatic papers are all but finalised.

These are sensitive issues. Tennis Australia probably feels miffed but can do precious little about it except play to the "Aussie-ness" of the players and their families and wonder why they would prefer to play under the British flag. I am told that Tennis Australia have been in contact with the Robson family, who moved to London via Singapore when the player was six but have a strict understanding that they would not chase, court or recruit anyone to artificially bolster their rankings. They insist that they want genuine progress and development which they regard as both realistic and fair.

Well, Laura Robson slipped through their net - she is British now and there is no going back. So, it seems is the case with Konta, grand-daughter of Attila Kertesz, who played in Hungary's famed football team of the Fifties, starring the legendary Ferenc Puskas. Johanna has divided her time between London and Spain academies since she turned 13 and her Australian accent has almost disappeared. "I'm only playing as [an] Australian now under a technicality as my passport is coming through this year. I am definitely becoming British. There is no going back," she said recently.

Let us hope that they all come good, for everyone's sake. Keothavong is currently enjoying the best form of her life. She has won three tournaments this year, gave Venus Williams a decent run for her money in the second round of Wimbledon and ought to have beaten Marion Bartoli of France, at the same stage of the Stanford, California WTA tournament last week. An eye-witness account suggested that "if you can't out-play your opponent you have to out-psych them, which Bartoli did. She then had a trainer break which increased Anne's confidence. She then tried the loo break which also failed. Finally she tried crowding Anne's serve which put pressure on the part of her game where she was least confident. A world ranked No 15 player will always find one more way of rescuing a lost game from a player ranked 75."

Bartoli rallied from a 1-4 deficit and two breaks of serve down in the final set to win 6-3, 1-6, 7-5. Keothavong has improved a ton and showed off her fierce forehand, but Bartoli dared to be different near the end of the third set, standing within three feet of the service line to return, slapping two-handers down the line and charging to finish points at the net with two-handed swing volleys. "I decided I was going to win whatever it took," she said.

"She was getting so many balls back so I tried to go the net, force it and try to win the point quicker. I was able to do it under pressure, which is hard to do but it was the only way to win the match." Keothavong threw in numerous fist pumps and "Cmon's" during the match, where Bartoli was very quiet, until the end, when she let out a loud shriek. "Sometimes it bothers me a little but I try not show it and stay focused and the best answer is to win the match."

Keothavong now enjoys a career-high status of No 76 in the world on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings and, with a fair wind, coud become a top 50 player before the end of the year. She has risen 56 places this year alone.

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