Following in the footsteps of Andy Murray is never going to be easy but Edinburgh teenager James McKie is out to show that it can be done by staying in Scotland.

Murray went to Barcelona to hone his skills as a teenager, where he combined his school work with tennis, but McKie, 17, has just completed his first year at Scotland’s Tennis Academy.

One of 12 youngsters on the programme – based at Merchiston Castle and St George’s in Edinburgh – McKie, who is also supported by the East of Scotland Institute of Sport, believes his game has improved significantly working under South African coach Marcel Du Coudray and Scottish national coach Ellinore Lightbody.

He has been studying for A levels in Biology, Economics, Geography and PE and now faces a busy tennis schedule over the summer with tournaments at home and abroad.

He was given a wildcard entry into last month’s Scottish Open at Craiglockhart, where he went out in qualifying to England’s Daniel Evans, and the next few months promise to be important as he seeks to make a breakthrough.

McKie transferred from George Heriot’s School to take up his place at Merchiston Castle in the inaugural year of the academy programme, and he is in no doubt it was the correct decision.

“Coming to Merchiston Castle was the best decision I’ve made. To work with Marcel Du Coudray, who has coached Nikolay Davydenko, has been pretty unbelievable,” he said.

“Before, I was rushing tennis and just trying to shove a game in at night or whenever I had the time.
 Here, my tennis works in well with my lessons. During the winter timetable, I have lessons every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and then have three hours of tennis before going back to lessons from 4pm-6pm.

“During the summer timetable, I have lessons until 3.55pm and then it is light enough after that to get in a few hours of tennis.

“I have found the teachers at Merchiston are willing to bend over backwards to help you.  We operate a Saturday timetable here but I often miss classes because I am at tournaments.

“However, I can make an appointment to see a teacher at 7pm if necessary and he will give me work to catch up on.

“Around 70 per cent of tennis players leave school after 16 to play on the professional circuit. But then, only 13 per cent make it.

“That means that they have nothing to fall back on if they did not get academic qualifications.  I’m getting the best of both worlds here as I can pursue by tennis and my studies.”

Scottish national coach Ellinore Lightbody knows the difficulties involved in playing full-time around the world and Alan Mackin and Karen Paterson, who both achieved some notable results, have both quit the full-time circuit in recent months.

 “It’s a very tough sport with all the travelling involved,” she outlined, “Alan got to about 250 on the ATP tour which was really good and I think he felt he had achieved his potential.

 “He’s 26 now and he was at the stage where he was challenging long distances for one or two weeks of tournaments and the prize money he was bringing in meant that he was breaking even but not making a living out of it.

“I think he took stock.  He had achieved a lot in terms of representing Great Britain in the Davis Cup.

“He’s now coaching, so we’re still able to use his expertise to help some of the best Scottish juniors.

“Karen also loved playing but again felt she had gone as far as she would and we’re now trying to help her into a coaching career.

“While it’s disappointing they’ve stopped playing, we can now use their expertise and hopefully the next players will learn from them and go a step higher.”

With the success of the Murray brothers, Tennis Scotland is now having to cope with increasing demand from young players wanting to take up the game.

“It’s provided a lot of challenges and one of our biggest challenges is to provide enough indoor tennis facilities that everyone who’s interested in the game can access,” she continued.

“When you see a game on television and want to play the game that can mean travelling long distances and at a cost and we want to make the game cost-effective and affordable for everyone. That’s the challenge we face.

“We need partners who are prepared to invest in tennis facilities that are available to the general public and as we build our player base, we build a participation base.

“Then it is more likely that players will come through and want to take up tennis as a career.

“It’s a positive challenge for us and we’re obviously delighted that Andy and Jamie Murray and Jamie Baker are doing so well and hopefully they will inspire another generation of kids to take it up.”

RM
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