AIDAN McHugh was out in Meshref in Kuwait last week but the main gulf in evidence was the one in class between him and the rest of the field. The low key hard courts of the Kuwaiti national tennis centre might not be the most glamorous of tennis surroundings but they will always have a special place in the affections of Andy Murray’s 18-year-old prodigy from Bearsden as the site where he won his first senior trophy.
With an overall prize purse of £15,000, the cash on offer for the Kuwait F1 futures event won’t exactly be life changing for the young Scot. In fact, most of it will be eaten up by his travelling and living expenses. But it is another giant step on the ladder as this young man, and Australian Open junior semi-finalist, bids to have a profitable career at the sharp end of the sport.
Having started the tournament as World No 704, he is projected to rise to 584 by the time the next set of rankings emerge. And who knows, with him already through the first round of another Kuwaiti Futures event, perhaps these tournament wins might turn out to be a bit like Glasgow buses.
“Aidan has made two or three semi-finals this year and I think it was in September down at one of the British tournaments at the same level, a 15k down in Barnstaple, where he made the final,” said his coach Toby Smith, who joined him out in the gulf state only this weekend. “So it was really nice for him to come through. In the last couple of months he has been consistent with his performances and managed to get some really nice wins against players who are ranked between 250 and 300. It is really pleasing
“His semi-final win against Germany’s Peter Heller [the World No 296] was a very good win,” said Smith. “He was 5-2 down in the first set then from that point on he played flawless tennis. He is starting to realise that the performance goals are the bigger picture, playing your game, coming forward. If you do these things, that you are very good at, it increases your chances of winning matches.
“In the final [against Alec Adamson of the USA] he was a little nervous, and the second set might have been frustrating for him because he was doing all the front running but played a few cheap points in the tie break and lost it. But he is starting to get a bit more mature. He went for a toilet break, probably did a bit of the Andy Murray stuff, looking himself in the mirror. Probably six or 12 months ago, he would probably been so annoyed at himself about losing the second set that he would have lost the match. So the fact that he won it quite comfortably was very pleasing indeed.
Depending on how his next few weeks go, McHugh might get a week of rest, but he is in the fast lane now. Before long he will be jetting out to Miami for a team GB singles camp at IMG Florida under the auspices of Toby’s brother Leon, where he will rub shoulders with his young English contemporary Jack Draper, and the likes of Dan Evans, Jay Clarke, Cam Norrie and Kyle Edmund, if not Andy Murray himself. There will also be some time at nearby Boca Raton, where Jamie Murray and his coach Louis Cayer will dispense further words of wisdom.
It will be nice for the Scot to head out there with his first trophy in the bag, although perhaps not literally. “What did he win?” joked Smith. “Nothing too exciting, just a reasonable trophy which will probably present a problem with his baggage allowance on the way back. It was his biggest pay cheque too, but that will go towards his accommodation costs. He isn’t going to be retiring just yet!”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel