TENNIS RETURNS TO SCOTLAND

Andy Murray has made no secret of the fact that he would like to see an ATP World Tour event on Scottish soil at some point in the future.  There is certainly the enthusiasm for it north of the border, but there are a number of complex issues which means, for now, us Scots will have to make do with the occasional Davis Cup tie and three annual Futures events, two in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh.

One of these Futures takes place this week when the Scotstoun Leisure Centre welcomes a mixture of journeyman professionals and up-and-coming teenagers scrapping for every extra ranking point they can muster in an effort to climb up the world rankings.

While the tennis on show may not exactly live up to the standard of the classic US Open Final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal last month - the top-ranked men’s player at Scotstoun this week is world No.287 Marco Crugnola, of Italy - it is still of a high enough level for even the most casual of tennis fans to enjoy.

It is the raw nature of Futures events which can often make for compelling viewing.  The action is held on adjacent courts with one umpire, one line judge and no ball boys.  In fact, play in some matches can often be brought to a halt as a ball rolls onto court from the next one along.

Main draw first-round matches are where you can witness some epic battles.  Players at Scotstoun tomorrow will fight extremely hard to avoid being the loser who walks away on the first day with no ranking points and a cheque for just $176.25 which, for many, won’t even come close to covering travel and accommodation costs.

It’s not easy working your way up the tennis rankings, but the Futures circuit is where many of today’s top players have once plied their trade.  Murray was a previous winner of the Glasgow event in 2003 when he was just 16-years-old.

Australian Matthew Ebden provides a positive story of what can be achieved within 12 months.  Last year, he picked up a cheque for $1950 and 27 ranking points for winning the event at Scotstoun.  Last week, his run to the quarter-finals at the Shanghai Masters, where he was beaten by Murray, earned him $77,800 and 180 points, putting him in the top 100 for the first time today at No.80.

But while there are some, like Ebden, who have gone on to bigger things, there are players who return to Glasgow having achieved little progress in the rankings over the past year.  Britons Dan Cox, Dan Evans and Joshua Goodall are familiar faces at Scotstoun, and whilst it is nice to welcome them back to Scotland, if they had made the progress they would have hoped to achieve, they would not be back here this week.

One player who comes to Scotstoun with big hopes for the future is the US Open junior champion Oliver Golding.  There is a lot of talk surrounding the 18-year-old Brit after his success in New York last month, but there is still a lot of work to do as he makes the transition to the senior circuit.  These are just the early steps and it will be interesting to see how the young wild card entrant performs this week.

Sadly there is no Scottish interest in the men’s event as Glasgow’s Jamie Baker is competing at the Mansfield Futures in Texas this week, although we can surely claim, to some extent, the world No.785, Nicolas Rosenzweig.

The Frenchman moved to Broughty Ferry in Scotland with his family at the age of four and has, in the past, trained at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, Murray’s old training base.  The 25-year-old is one of these unique ambidextrous players who effectively plays a forehand off both sides and is surely worth a look for those who head along this week.

Also taking place at the same time at Scotstoun is the $25k women’s event, which is headed by Austrian Yvonne Meusberger, the world No.157.  There are no British direct acceptances, which is quite rare for a home event, although four Brits have received wild cards, including 16-year-old Emma Devine from Edinburgh.

Another player worth keeping a look out for is 18-year-old Kristina Mladenovic, of France.  You may remember her from this year’s Hopman Cup in Australia when she beat Laura Robson, before teaming up with Nicolas Mahut in the mixed doubles match to beat Murray and Robson in straight sets.  She also won the 2009 Junior French Open Girls’ Singles.

So not only do you get to witness professional tennis close up if you head along, you may also get to see a star of the future.  Entry is free with play starting at 10am each day.

FLEMING AND HUTCHINS ARE AIMING HIGH

Doubles is regarded by some as a form of tennis for those second-rate players who couldn’t quite make it in singles.  While that is perhaps an overly harsh analysis, there is no doubt that a clear gulf exists between singles and doubles in terms of worldwide appeal and importance.

However, Davis Cup is when doubles gets its rare chance to be on an equal footing with singles.  The sole doubles match in these ties can often prove to be such a crucial rubber, and it counts for one point in the best-of-five format, just as the other four singles rubbers each do.

That is why the development of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins as a partnership on tour is so important to British tennis as the Davis Cup team moves back up the ladder.

Look at some of the key roles which other regular partnerships have played for their countries - the USA’s Bryan brothers are probably the best example having won 19 of the 21 Davis Cup matches they have played together.

Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski have also proved to be a handy pairing, as Great Britain experienced when Hutchins and Andy Murray were defeated by the Poles in a crucial Euro/Africa Zone Group One relegation play-off in September 2009, which Britain went on to lose, succumbing them to the lowly depths of Group Two, the third tier of the competition.

Now that Britain are back in Group One, the hope is that Fleming & Hutchins will prove to be a reliable partnership in the doubles rubbers when they come up against tougher opposition as part of the quest to get back to the World Group.  It also takes a bit of pressure off the British No.1, Murray, who will not be required to play on all three days.

At Braehead last month, Fleming & Hutchins made their second appearance together in Davis Cup - their first since becoming a full-time partnership at the start of this year - and it was they who actually clinched promotion for Britain with victory over their Hungarian opponents.

Following two grand slam quarter-final appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open, it was another notable moment for the pair in what has, at times, also been a year of frustration.  Hutchins, aged 26 from London, has missed a number of tournaments at different points in the year due to wrist problems, which has forced Fleming to play with other partners to maintain his ranking.

“It has been very frustrating,” said Hutchins.  “I have had a couple of wrist problems in the past, but nothing like this which has kept me out for seven months on and off, four or five times, starting and stopping again.

“Colin has hid it very well from me, but I am sure he has been wanting to pull his hair out about why I can’t get my wrist strong.  It’s just frustrating that we haven’t been able to play more than six tournaments fit together this year.  But now I am on top of it, we can get a good run together and hopefully build a partnership which is long and successful.”

With Hutchins over his wrist problems, the pair are now in Russia for a fortnight of ATP 250 tournaments, beginning with the Kremlin Cup in Moscow this week and followed by the St Petersburg Open, where Colin won his second and last ATP title with former partner Ken Skupski two years ago.

Although the season is coming towards its end, it is a crucial time for the pair as they have a number of ranking points to defend before the year is out.  Fleming currently sits at a career high ranking of 41 and Hutchins is at 47, which allows them to get in most ATP 250 events, but the pair are hoping for much bigger things next year.

“We want to get into Indian Wells and Miami [both Masters 1000 events], so we have to be around 30 by March, and then we want to be seeded for the French Open”, said Hutchins.  “So that is a good aim for us and we are also strongly aiming to be in the London World Tour Finals by the end of next year.

“You have to be successful as a partnership as those rankings and criteria are done as a team, so Colin and I want to be in the top eight in the world as a team and we want to be competing in London for the prize of the No.1 team at the end of the year.”

It’s a big aim for the pair, especially when you consider that Hutchins, according to Wikipedia, works in the Registry Pub in Portsmouth when he is not on tour.  That particular bit of information is actually the work of a Wikipedia prankster, but there is no denying that there is indeed a substantial difference in the prize money which singles and doubles players can earn.
  
For example, Croatian Antonio Veic, the current singles world No.160, has earned $138,377 this year.  Compare that to Fleming’s 2011 earnings of $120,964.

Many players on tour will tell you that money is not the primary concern, but when travel costs have to be met, it must be an important consideration.  The cheque of £31,250 which Fleming & Hutchins received for reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals will have been a nice bonus, but how easy is it for doubles players to sustain a living on tour?

“Ross and I are certainly able to make a living out of what we do” said Fleming, the 27-year-old from Linlithgow.  “As you play in better tournaments, you also get more things for free as well.  It’s one of these things; when you need the things for free, you can’t get them and then when you almost have some money to pay for them, you start getting them for free.

“We are just enjoying it at the moment.  Obviously singles players earn more money, but we are able to do OK with what we are doing just now.”

Fleming and Hutchins were both speaking at last month’s launch of the new LTA Mini Tennis scheme, in association with Highland Spring, which was something that brought back memories for Fleming of playing with a sponge ball as he got to grips with tennis in his younger years.

In fact, he doesn’t have to go too far back to relive his sponge ball memories as he, Andy and Jamie Murray and a host of other friends all used to reunite, when they were home in Scotland at Christmas, for a fun indoor competition at their old training base.

“I think it was called the World Short Tennis Championships, even though it was only guys from Central Scotland”, said Fleming.  “We played it at Stirling University on Christmas Eve and we played with the sponge ball like we all used to when we were young.

“It’s a tough physical test because no one can hit a winner with the sponge ball, so you just go on forever.  But Andy even won it twice as he is so competitive and he just wouldn’t let anyone beat him at it.  It was good fun.”

MURRAY ON TOP FORM IN ASIA

It is a shame that the only UK television coverage of Andy Murray’s matches during the Asian swing so far was a one hour highlights show on Sky Sports 3 tonight.  British tennis fans have been deprived of seeing the world No.4 in the form of his life on the hard courts of Bangkok and Tokyo.

Murray’s 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory over Rafael Nadal in this morning’s Japan Open final made for good viewing.  If he continues his rich vein of form by defending his title at this week’s Shanghai Masters, for which Sky will broadcast live coverage each day, the Scot will, perhaps sooner than expected, attain his end-of-season goal of becoming the new world No.3 ahead of Roger Federer.

While Murray, in the past, has sometimes struggled to deal with the aftermath of grand slam defeats in the latter stages – the post-Australian Open slumps both this year and last year being two examples – there has been no sign of any poor form or lack of motivation during the past month.

At the Davis Cup Euro/Africa Group Two promotion play-off between Great Britain and Luxembourg last month, Murray went about his work professionally and got the job done.  At the ATP 250 event in Bangkok last week, he was fully committed to winning a tournament which, in all honesty, makes little difference to his CV.

What it did do, though, was give him the confidence to go to Tokyo and continue with the aggressive intent that had served him so well the previous week.   And that showed in all of his matches in Japan, particularly in his 6-2 6-3 semi-final win against David Ferrer, who you would not believe, on the basis of watching that match, was ranked just one place below Murray.

All these matches in Asia before the final in Tokyo were ones which Murray was expected to win anyway.  The big test of his positive approach and mindset would come against Nadal, the world No.2 who had a 13-4 head-to-head record over Murray and had beaten him in the semi-finals of the last three grand slams.

It was a test, though, that Murray clearly relished, and it showed.  Despite a nervy start in which he was broken in his opening service game before Nadal went on to take the opening set 6-3, Murray did not get frustrated, remained patient and took his chance on his fourth break point of the match at 2-1.

A good indicator of how Murray is currently feeling on court came when, at 0-40 down in the next game, he served three consecutive aces before crucially holding serve.  That was perhaps the defining point of the match as, from then on, Nadal went on to win just one more game.

The bagel set which Murray delivered in the decider was perhaps the best set I have ever seen the 24-year-old play.  It was a devastating performance with Murray hitting huge winners at ease off both wings.

It is not the first 6-0 set Murray has won against Nadal, having done the same in the final set when he won the final of the Rotterdam tournament in 2009.  That day though, Nadal was injured and was basically on one leg.

There were no such problems with Nadal today.  He was simply overwhelmed by Murray’s hitting and managed to win just four points in that final set.  It was a tame end to the defence of his Japan Open title and the stat remains that Nadal has never defended a non- clay court title in his career.

On the back of his singles victory, Murray rounded off the perfect week by going back on court to win the doubles event with brother Jamie as they defeated Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek 6-1, 6-4 in under an hour. 

Despite being a regular instance 30 years ago, players winning the singles and doubles titles in the same week doesn’t happen all too often on the tour these days and Andy became the first player since Juan Ignacio Chela in September 2010 in Bucharest to do the double at an ATP event.

Jamie will no doubt be grateful to his younger brother for helping him out.  The 25-year-old is still struggling to find a permanent partner on tour, but the 500 points gained this week should help as it will take him to a new career high ranking within the top 25 tomorrow.

While Jamie has a break this week before heading to Moscow to play with Frenchman Julien Benneateau at the Kremlin Cup, Andy heads straight to Shanghai in buoyant mood.  It will be interesting to see if the exertions of the past two weeks catch up with him or perhaps, like we have seen with Novak Djokovic, the confidence of winning matches will help take him to yet another title.

Some may point out that it is very well doing this in the ATP Tour events, but Murray is still yet to do it at a grand slam.  That may be the case, but such a devastating performance against a fully fit world No.2, who has denied him at the majors on so many occasions in the past, may just help give Murray that extra little bit of belief he needs.