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Sports Journalist

Tuesday 3 January 2012

There is no rest for those who court success in international tennis.

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neil drysdale

The Yuletide and the summer sport might go together like strawberries and cream, but Colin Fleming finds himself in Doha this week, as the 27-year-old Scot launches his 2012 campaign almost before the dust has set on a 2011 season. The campaign began in frustrating fashion for the Linlithgow man, but finished with him attaining a career-best placing in the global rankings.

Most of the spotlight in this country understandably focuses on Andy Murray's pursuit of a Grand Slam title, but the likes of Fleming and his doubles colleague, Ross Hutchins, are moving closer to reaching the stratosphere in the major tournaments themselves. It surely speaks volumes for the Scottish influence on the British game that a quartet – Murray, Fleming, Hutchins and Jamie Baker – will be involved at the Australian Open, which swings into action at the end of this month."We've spurred each other on and it definitely helps when you see somebody such as Andy become a star and make a habit of winning matches and events," says Fleming, whose burgeoning alliance with Hutchins has propelled the duo to No.16 in the rankings, assisted by their excellent displays at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2011. "Getting to the quarter-finals in both these events demonstrated we are capable of making an impression in the majors, and we want to kick on now, because we really believe that we can go further and who knows, get to the semis, or the final, or win one of these things in the future."Some players in the doubles milieu adopt the swingers' party approach to changing partners, but Fleming prefers fidelity to constantly chasing new liaisons. That policy didn't help him when Hutchins was struggling with a wrist injury at the outset of this season – a situation which Fleming described as "a bit of a nightmare" – but he is one of life's redoubtable characters and the pair's response to regaining lost momentum summed up why their coach, Louis Cayer, believes they are a match for anyone."It wasn't the greatest of starts to the summer, but it turned into my best season to date and a lot of the credit for that is down to Ross, who worked really hard to regain full fitness as quickly as he could," said Fleming, who previously enjoyed a brief flirtation with fame when he and Jocelyn Rae struck gold in the mixed doubles competition at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. "Since June, we've really found our best form, both in the Grand Slams and winning in St Petersburg, which was another indication that we are improving as a team, and yet you never look too far in front of you when you are on the men's tour, because if you begin thinking about making finals, you are liable to come a cropper in the first round. But if you can do well at Wimbledon and at Flushing Meadows – and we nearly went through to the semis in both cases – then you have to believe that you are on the right track and that you can beat anybody."Fleming's profile has risen recently since he joined forces with the sports management company, Red Sky. He enjoyed being involved in a photo-shoot with the Glasgow Warriors rugby squad and while he could probably walk along Princes Street or Sauchiehall Street without eliciting a second glance, he realises that the London Olympics will offer him and Hutchins a chance to show their talents to a global audience."Everything's there for the tennis event. It's at Wimbledon, it's in front of our home supporters and if the Commonwealth Games were big, the Olympics will be even bigger," said Fleming, who is confident he and Hutchins will gain the necessary ranking points to qualify. "We have grown used to dealing with big-match pressure, so if we got to the Olympics, we'd treat the doubles competition as a Grand Slam tournament and, hopefully, go deep into the later stages. We're not getting ahead of ourselves, though. But our coach believes in us, and so do we."First, however, there is the Australian Open and excursions to Doha and Sydney, as the prelude to Melbourne. There's no cheap route to the summit in his vocation, but as a first-class honours graduate in economics and finance, Fleming appreciates the virtues of speculating to accumulate.

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