IT proved to be an unhappy 18th birthday for Aidan McHugh in the first round of the boys’ singles.
The Bearsden teenager, an Australian open junior semi-finalist this year and a client of Andy Murray’s 77 Sports Management firm, showed glimpses of the potential he possesses when taking the first set against France’s Harold Mayot, but he went off into the night chiding himself for not playing more aggressively.
The Frenchman, serving big and coming into the net at every available opportunity, recovered sufficiently to see out a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win in one hour 45 minutes out on Court No 16. If it put something of a dampener on the No 16 seed’s birthday celebrations, McHugh could console himself by going a far in the boys’ singles at SW19 as his mentor ever managed. He is back in action today, in the boys’ doubles with his Kazakh partner Timofey Skatov.
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“The main thing was just having a bit more of an aggressive mindset, I was far too much behind the baseline and pretty passive,” said McHugh. “I thought the guy would miss a lot more and thought I could get away with it. As soon as I did inject pace or anything like that, the guy really didn’t like it. I needed to learn to be more like that from the start.
“It is a wee bit weird playing on your birthday - I can’t remember the last time I did celebrate it,” McHugh. “I will maybe do something after the tournament but I was trying not to think about it and not get distracted. Obviously, it is something I have got to get used to in terms of coming back as a senior.”
As for Jamie Murray, all his decisions this time of year appear to be paying off - and not just because he has England’s Harry Kane in his fantasy league team. Pressed into action twice yesterday, despite a nagging ongoing knee complaint, his first assignment of the day saw the 32-year-old and his Brazilian doubles partner Bruno Soares march into the quarter finals of the men’s doubles at the expense of Liverpudlian brothers Ken and Neil Skupski. The 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win means they have yet to drop their serve all tournament, even if Jamie had the novelty factor of being required to stave off a few break points.
With the gangways about 10 deep at points during the Scot’s match, after a few hours hanging around, he and mixed doubles partner Viktoria Azarenka landed a prime Centre Court slot, where they saw off Robert Farah of Colombia and Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-6 (6), x-x.
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“A lot of people want to come and watch us,” said Jamie. “We played Court 12 the other day and it was packed, we played court 2 and it was packed as well. It was nice to get some support and Ken and Neil had a lot of friends and family there too. We had four British guys in the last 16 of the men’s doubles which is great. It is exciting for British doubles – to have teams getting into the latter stages of Slams.
“The knee is okay. It is under control, I just need to manage it through two matches,” he added. “Myself and Bruno are happy to get through in straight sets.
“We are in the tournament – we’ve played three good matches. Tomorrow will be difficult as well. But someone has to win it so why not us?”
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