AIDAN McHugh turns 18 today. He is hoping for many happy returns, some successful serving and hopefully a match win in the boys’ singles at the All England Club.

Reaching the doubles final at the Grade One junior event at Roehampton on Friday allowed this teenager from Bearsden, a client of Andy Murray’s 77 Sports Management firm, an extra day or two off ahead of today’s meeting with Hugo Mayot of France.

Since reaching the third round here last year – as deep in the boys’ singles as his mentor ever went – McHugh has reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open junior event. Had he not prioritised match practice on the Challenger Tour, he would have a far higher junior rank and be seeded higher than his No 16 position, but just going out there and having fun remains his biggest priority.

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McHugh, you may recall, climbed out of the crowd at the Andy Murray Live event at the SSE Hydro last November to hit a few points – clad in a jacket and jeans – against the greatest player the world has ever seen. The two men hit for rather longer in practice at Aorangi Park last week, although not as long as Federer would have wanted.

While fellow Scottish teenager Jacob Fearnley practised with him three times, McHugh was invited back but had to inform the great man that he had a prior commitment to practice with Andy Murray instead. It isn’t often a Scottish teenager tells the greatest tennis player in history that he is busy.

“It was really cool to hit with Roger, a really nice opportunity for me to get to practice with him,” said McHugh. “He is very relaxed and his practice. He has obviously got a ridiculous amount of skill, and he is so laid back.

“It was just great fun and a shame I couldn’t hit with him the next day,” he added. “But it was quite funny. Myself and Toby had to give him the bad news. He wanted me to hit with him the next day but I had already agreed to hit with Andy instead so we had to say no. Andy is obviously pretty pumped with that, that he was the chosen one.”

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McHugh, the last of three Scottish boys in the junior event this year alongside Fearnley and Connor Thomson, went down to Sebastian Korda, the son of Petr, in the warm-up event at Roehampton, but he is just one seed who has already exited the competition. Clearly there are perils of putting too much expectation on the shoulders of a young player but McHugh, who has a senior ranking of 950, will be hopeful of a decent run. He will compete too in the doubles with usual partner Timofey Skatov of Kazakhstan.

“It is always really nice when you get the chance to play at Wimbledon,” he said. “I just want to go there and enjoy it. Maybe after Wimbledon I will do something to celebrate my 18th birthday. But a win would be a nice birthday present. “I don’t really think too much about my seeding - my ranking has dropped a good bit because I have played less junior matches. I’m playing a young French boy who I saw play a bit this week, and he is a good player.”