I'm pleased for Dan and Josh, okay it's only doubles but I hope it adds to their confidence and leads to bigger and better.

Well, Sheddie, you did ask for it - and I was going to give everyone a rest from my deathless prose!

Another beautiful, hot sunny day in the Athens of the North (and, according to the BBC's weather presenter the following day, Scotland had been hotter than Athens - and Nice, and Rome!), and another chance to see some of the bright young hopes of British tennis. As Dan Evans' match started quite a long time before James Ward's, I stationed myself on the grassy bank above Court 1, rather than settle in the 1600-seat stadium of Centre Court (I counted them whilst awaiting the doubles semi-final, later!)

Dan began the way he'd finished on Tuesday, aggressive, confident and ambitious, and was soon 3-1 ahead. Then the wheels came off; the shots which had been landing a foot inside the lines now started landing outside by the same margin. Dan had lost control of his game and five of the next six games drifted away, and with them, the first set. Dan exploded in annoyance with himself - the racket was swung into the ground, and a new one appeared. Before it ever came into contact with a ball, it had hit a stanchion supporting the court's netting.

During the first game of the new set, an audible obscenity - it probably alerted the Castle Guard a couple of kilometres away! - cost Dan a point; he lost his service, broken for the third time in four attempts. 0-1, and Frederic Jeanclaude watched from the other end, scarcely able to believe his luck as his lowly-ranked, but clearly formidable, opponent became cannon-fodder.

Dan's character now asserted itself; one could almost see him draw breath and speak severely, but calmly, to himself. The aggression was reeled in a little; he took a couple of mph off his strokes, the rallies lengthened as did the games - slightly less excitement, considerably more tension! Dan broke back, 1-1, lost his service again for 2-3, retrieved it at 4-4, conceded again at 4-5, then finally levelled to send us into a tie-break. In the midst of all this, came an interesting incident. A Jeanclaude shot to Evans' backhand sideline was given 'in'; Dan disagreed and invited the umpire to check the mark. While she seemed to accept that the mark Dan indicated was out, she seemed unwilling to accept that this was necessarily the appropriate mark. A very long discussion ensued; Dan was determined, but unfailingly polite - good for you, Dan Evans! The umpire, who gave an excellent display herself, always clear, always decisive, but perfectly willing to enter into discussion when requested, returned to her chair; the call stood.

The tie-break started badly, 1-4, and I found James, whose match had lasted considerably less time than Dan's, standing beside me, applauding Dan's attempts to retrieve the situation. Though Dan battled well, he couldn't trim the deficit and found himself out of the tournament. It had been an enthralling match, though, and excellent entertainment for the spectators. 

The end of the afternoon saw a doubles semi-final on the show court. Josh Milton had, it seemed, spent the entire day in the sunshine, supporting the Brits, socialising, listening to a couple of the coaches, being mistaken for Dan by one of the officials, and all the time in high good humour, clearly enjoying this stage of his tennis career.

On court, he and Dan were laughing and joking, generally having fun. The first round of service games saw both the Phillips brothers broken, and Dan, too, though that was largely self-inflicted - two double-faults, one mistimed smash sending the ball into the spectators, one extravagant forehand long by several metres. Josh, meantime, was the epitome of composure, winning his service to love; his serve didn't seem to be particularly powerful, but the Aussies couldn't cope with it; two aces punctuated the game.

Amy Sargeant arrived at this point and, after watching a couple of games, suggested that the match was laughable and that the the Phillips boys were 'tanking it'; I disagreed, but not out loud! I felt that there was a clear difference in class; Josh was immaculate, mistakes rare, shots always putting his opponents under pressure, whilst Dan was playing devil-may-care tennis, extravagant forehands, sizzling backhands, backhand smashes, the full repertoire - his shots went out almost as often as they produced winners, but what entertainment!

Dan lost his serve once more, at 4-3 in the second set, but, as the Australians ceded five service breaks altogether, it was of no matter. The match ended 6-4, 6-2, as it had begun, with the Anglo-Welsh pairing laughing and joking. I do enjoy doubles!

Thanks a lot, and thanks for the Live(ish) scores, too.

Thanks DJ, another great report that brings alive the matches.

Thanks DJ for another excellent report. However, if you (according to Johnnylad) are the Stuart Hall of this board, who's the Eddie Waring?! (frightening thought!)

I realise Mr Hall is now a football summariser, but for me he'll always be associated with It's a Knockout / Jeux sans Frontieres, completely losing it in fits of laughter.

Thanks to DJ for his very full and entertaining reports.

I was there on the Wednesday and met up with Kels and Sally from am.com to watch some Brits in action and get a tan in the process !

I got there at 1pm and caught the end of Evans v Cox second set and the whole of the third.

Evans had dominated the first set as a 6-1 scoreline suggests. The second was going with serve right up to 5-5 when Evans (sporting the 'black look' including a very ninja black headband) serve let him down slightly and Cox broke and took the set 7-5. Cox is shorter than Evo and really works hard in all his shots and gets back a high percentage of balls. There were several BH to BH ralleys as both youngsters wanted to keep the ball away from the FH side. Being slightly taller Evo is more graceful is his shot making commands his space very well. Both lads were well behind the baseline during ralleys but Evo always keen to step up a bit when it suited him.

Evo quickly went 3-0 up in the final set after Cox could not hold onto his serve in game 2. The game must have lasted at least 10 mins with 5 deuces and chances to both to close out but it was the better ground strokes from Evo that prevailed. 3-0 quickly became 5-1 with Cox getting more and more frustrated and Evo keeping it simple and picking on the Cox BH.

So Evo took the game 6-1 5-6 6-1 and afterwards Cox stated that "..it just wasnt his day.."

I then watched painfully on as Richard Bloomfield played like he wanted to be elsewhere.
Never have I seen so many unforced errors on both FH and BH sides from 2 yards behind the baseline going long by the same amount on the other side of the court. Shocking.

On the next court Tim Hewitt was playing Alvares and quickly went 2-0 up and he was hitting some excellent strokes and seemed comfortable on the green clay. What a tall guy the englishman is ! After Alvares called for the trainer it was one way traffic as Hewitt was run ragged as the Argentine just got everything back. Alvares took the first set 6-4.

Bloomers on the other hand could not even muster 4 games as he went down 6-3 in the first. Every service game he would get 1 or 2 very cheap points. Ace or un-retrunable serve. But if the Frenchman got the ball back over the net....he would most likely win the point.

The Frenchman got most balls back hard and low over the net on the FH and BH sides and rich looked totally out of sorts.

Hewitt now was also out of it as he was lucky to win a game in the second set and he went down 6-4 6-1. I wished him the all the best afterwards...he grunted thanks as he headed off for a well earned cool shower. It would have been about 24 Deg C on court and his face was 'beetroot' !

Rich in his gastly lime green / yellow top had no answer but did mange to win slightly more games in total than Hewitt as he lost 6-3 6-3. I cannot recall him having a BP during the match !

I missed Wards Match but did catch a few minutes of Jade Curtis and was surprised that she ended up loosing in straights. Looked very keen and evenly matched her oppponent.

Had a good chat with Sally and Kels and we all agreed that Rich has and will play better !

I had to leave at 3.30pm as I had a golf medal at 5. Went rather well in the end. I shot 74 and won !