Promising British youngster hopes to earn Wimbledon wild card
Alongside Jack Draper, an 18-year-old Aidan McHugh has been one of the biggest prospects of British tennis in the last couple of years, cracking the top-500 at the end of 2018 before losing ATP points due to those ranking changes. Aidan is currently ranked outside the top-150 on the ITF World Tennis Singles Ranking list and he will have to work hard on the low-tier tournaments to reach Challengers and the opportunity to play for ATP points again and make progress through the rankings.
The Glasgow native is a former junior world no. 8, reaching the semi-final at the Australian Open last year and slowly switching his focus to pro events, making Challenger debut at home in Glasgow last April and playing in the first final at Great Britain F6 Futures in September. The best was yet to come in November when McHugh conquered two Futures crown in Kuwait, losing two sets in ten matches and making a big push towards the top-500 where he entered in December, around the same time while training with Andy Murray in Miami (he signed a contract with Andy's 77 Sports Management agency).
The youngster has won just one match so far in 2019 and he had the opportunity to change that at the M25 event at home in Glasgow this week, losing in the opening round to Jeremy Jahn 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 after two hours and 34 minutes. Both players scored three breaks while the German won just one point more than Aidan, trailing 3-1 in the decider before winning five of the next six games to leave the home player empty-handed. Fully aware of the chance he missed, McHugh knows he has to work hard in the rest of the season to build experience and confidence that would guide him in tight encounters like this one. Also, he is ready to do anything and earn Wimbledon wild card, playing at home Major three times as a junior and serving as the hitting partner for Roger Federer and Andy Murray.
“There is a lot of good stuff I can take from it to be sure but also lots of stuff I think I can do better and learn from, especially from that third set,” said McHugh. “It is just a bit annoying. My service game at 3-1 up, I felt myself tiring a little bit. I will definitely be working for that potential Wimbledon wild card. I don’t expect anything but I would love that. I played junior Wimbledon three times – the first time I can’t remember, amazingly. The second year I had the sunstroke – but I still got the win.”
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2T0Xtu0
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