The mentorship of Andy Murray is rubbing off on Aidan McHugh, the 17-year-old from Glasgow who is regarded as one of British tennis’s best prospects.
Overnight, McHugh was contesting his match in the Australian Open boys’ singles quarter-finals, his best performance at a junior grand-slam, and you can be sure that Murray — who recently signed his fellow Scot to 77, his sports management agency — was closely following the online live scores service with interest.
McHugh possesses an excellent one-handed backhand and an abundance of fighting spirit, as was evident when he saved set points in the first set of this third-round match yesterday before prevailing 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 against Ondrej Styler, the No 14 seed from the Czech Republic.
Murray congratulated McHugh by sending messages, peppered with fire emojis, from his Surrey home, while Jamie Murray watched before catching a flight back to London last night.
“It’s good that he [Andy] is right on it, he’s following my matches, which is really nice,” McHugh said. “Jamie as well, coming out to watch. It keeps you on your toes, that they’re watching.”
Advertisement
The last remaining Briton in the doubles, Dominic Inglot, was knocked out in the men’s quarter-finals. He and Marcus Daniell, from New Zealand, were narrowly beaten 6-4, 6-7 (10-12), 7-6 (7-5) by Oliver Marach, of Austria, and Mate Pavic, of Croatia.
Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid and Lucy Shuker were all knocked out in their first-round wheelchair singles matches.