High hopes as Gee battles in Futures event

PRESTWICK 17-year-old Calum Gee was to bear the full weight of Scottish expectation in the first round proper of the Scottish Tennis Open today.

Based at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, where Andy Murray spent his formative years, Gee was awarded a wild-card into the main draw of the Men's $15,000 Futures event at Craiglockhart.

Fully accustomed to playing at junior level, Gee is testing himself against the seniors for the first time this week and was due to face his first round opponent, third-seeded world top 500 player, Raphael Durek from Australia, this morning.

"This will be my first Futures and I'm looking forward to it," said an upbeat Calum.

"It will be a very good experience to see how I get on against the seniors."

The Scottish Open Futures event and its Ladies $10,000 equivalent may only be the first rung of the professional ladder, but the standard is high and the competition intense.

All three brave young Edinburgh players competing in yesterday's qualifying events were given a fiery baptism to the world of senior tennis.

In round two of the boys' qualifying event, 17-year-old James McKie lost 6-1 6-0 to Daniel Evans, seventh seed from England, while Taylor Flanagan (16) went down 6-0 6-1 to the fifth seed, England's Matthew Illingworth.

In the first round of the ladies' qualifying, the multi talented 16-year-old, Leigh Kasperek, a Scottish ladies international cricketer who maintains a high level of tennis at junior level, lost 6-1 6-2 to England's Aimee Jarratt.

Marcel Du Coudray, head coach at the new Merchiston Academy, which includes McKie in its current group of 13 Scottish juniors, sensibly pointed out: "Players like James will be entering overseas tournaments this summer to get the balance between the junior and senior tournaments.

"This tournament is a great opportunity for Scottish children to get international experience and an introduction to playing against full time senior players. We need more events like this in Scotland."