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Niall · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 9

I have put together a graph showing the ranking progress of the top Scottish tennis players over recent years. These are exiting times for Scottish tennis as a number of talented young players have emerged over the last few years and have pushed towards the top end of the world singles rankings.

Alan Mackin of Paisley flew the flag for Scottish tennis at the top of the rankings for a number of years. Maybe it wasn’t a big surprise when Andy overtook him but he wouldn’t have expected Jamie Baker to pass him this year and he will be aiming to fight back against the tide of emerging young players. This year he has had a bad run on the challenger circuit and recently he has dropped down to futures level to pick up some more points.

David Brewer of Edinburgh was a top junior player and had a promising start to his senior career. Unfortunately his second season was disappointing and he has struggled to make progress, he still plugging away on the futures circuit.

The youngest and the most successful of the group is, of course, Andy Murray of Dunblane. He broke into the rankings in summer 2003 but his progress was halted by injury in 2004 and he struggled a bit until summer 2005 when a change of coach kick started his meteoric rise up the rankings.

Colin Fleming of Broxburn took a different approach to his tennis career. Following a thoroughly mediocre junior career he gained is first ranking point aged 19 and went to University. Colin continued to practice and compete in the summer and in 2005 he achieved his breakthrough results and decided to have a go at being a full time professional. Colin’s best results have come in doubles where he often competes with Jamie Murray. He may have to make a decision in the next few months whether to he wants to concentrate on doubles and let his singles ranking slide back or try to defend his current position in singles to the possible detriment of his doubles ranking.

Jamie Baker of Glasgow is another player who had a fine career in junior tennis and he has made steady progress up the world rankings. Having secured the Scottish number two spot he is currently trying to break into the challenger to circuit where he will be able to earn points at the rate of a top 200 player.

Jamie Murray of Dunblane is Andy's older bother. He has made some progress in singles but his main focus is on doubles tennis where he has reached the final of an ATP event and is currently British number two.

Niall · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 9

I have updated the graph.

Andy has moved to a career high ranking of 19. Very Happy

Also on the way up Alan and David gained points this week. However, regular doubles partners Colin Fleming and Jamie Murray lost points from a GB satalite tournament last season and have slipped back.