Andy Murray’s retirement has left a massive void in Scottish tennis and Ewen Lumsden is keen to be part of the equation when it comes to trying to fill it.
It will take something remarkable for anyone to emulate what Murray achieved throughout a stellar career but that is not to stay that others can’t carry on the baton to try to ensure the sport remains predominant in the spotlight.
The likes of Jacob Fearnley, Charlie Robertson and Maia Lumsden – Ewen’s sister – have all enjoyed productive years and Lumsden is another who can look back on the past 12 months with a degree of satisfaction.
A number of boxes have been ticked by the 24-year-old including first singles and doubles victories on the ITF [International Tennis Federation] tour as well as the pre-set goal of virtually halving his ATP [Association of Tennis Professionals] world ranking in singles, down from around 1350 to close to the 750 mark.
There is little glamour to be found at this level of the game, with Lumsden admitting that it is often a case of travelling as efficiently and cheaply as possible to ensure he can take part in as many overseas tournaments as possible.
The hope, though, for the Lenzie-based athlete is that eventually this commitment to performing whenever and wherever will eventually deliver the desired pay-off.
“It’s been a good year for me overall,” he says. “The first six months were tough. I was in qualifying for a lot of the Futures events and it was hard to get points to get into the main draws. And then I just had a breakthrough week and that’s really helped me a lot. The second half of the year has been a lot better in terms of results.
“Hopefully I can keep improving my ranking and go straight into the main draws all the time. I’d quite like to get my world ranking into the 600s. I started the year around 1300 and now I’m in the region of 750 so it’s definitely come down quite a bit. But I know I can do a lot better still. I’m also keen to get into more ATP Challenger events next year as well.
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“It’s been tough trying to play as much as I can on a limited budget but having the Tennis Scotland events at home have helped. If you win one of those the prize money is £1000 and I’ve also won a few tournaments down in England too which is another couple of grand. You just have to find the cheap flights and share hotel rooms where you can keep the costs down.”
Tunisia has quickly become one of Lumsden’s favourite destinations. It was on the hard courts at Monastir where all four of his titles this year were secured, three in the doubles – all with different playing partners – and then a milestone breakthrough singles triumph back at the same spot in September. With another pair of doubles finals appearances on top of that, it’s little wonder that the University of Washington graduate is already planning on heading back to that corner of north Africa fairly soon.
“Tunisia has been my place this year,” he adds. “The good results have all come there. The conditions suit me. The courts are quite slow which I like, quite high bouncing. That means the rallies are quite long which I like. And there’s also some wind and I think that’s helped me too. A lot of players prefer indoors but playing outdoors seems to work better for me. I’m heading back there soon for a couple more weeks to finish my year and hopefully I can add another title to my collection.”
And what of life for Scottish tennis after Murray? Lumsden believes there is scope for optimism, both in the number of players pushing for prominence and the fact that the domestically based athletes like him are now trained at the University of Stirling by Jonny O’Mara, Murray’s former coach.
"We have some good players both at home and out playing in the America university system so there are definitely ones to look out for,” he adds. “Hamish Stewart is another who’s doing well. He’s doing the same thing as me and we train together a lot. I’ve been working with Jonny regularly which has also been good. He’s got a lot of good experience to pass on from his playing days and from his time working with Andy and that can only help."
