I was lucky enough to be able to spend three hours in the middle of the day at the sun-drenched Scottish National Tennis Centre - and was then frustrated by a computer glitch which prevented me from filing this report; I apologise to anyone who may have been waiting to hear about the action.
The complex is breathtakingly beautiful in the sunshine, nestled tightly as it is under a steeply wooded hillside and with a lochan, complete with sailing boats today, providing a backdrop to the major courts. Centre Court sits in a natural hollow below the enormous clubhouse cum offices, with comfortable seating for several hundred - a great place to watch tennis. I echo Greenleaf - bring back the Edinburgh Challenger, especially as there were, at times, a couple of hundred spectators, mostly schoolchildren, their teachers lured by the offer of instruction from the Scottish LTA.
The first matches I watched were on the adjacent courts 1,2 and 3, with an excellent view from the grass banking above. I caught the last couple of games of Niall Angus' defeat - it looked quite one-sided, with Niall doing a lot of head-shaking; he plays a mean game of head-tennis, though, demonstrating his skills later, on that same area of grass. Next door, the two Dans played a marathon final game of at least a dozen deuces; neither of the lads were pleased with their play, though,as both rackets hit the ground as often as they connected with the ball - or so it seemed. The outstanding display, though, was that of Dan Evans; he was the aggressor throughout, and the loss of the first set made no difference in that respect. In a display of powerful, attacking tennis, he always looked the more likely winner; the display reminded me, in its ambition, of that of Amanda Elliott, when I watched her in Sunderland during the winter. Dan showed the same fierce serving, the same unwillingness to compromise by looping the ball over the net - every shot, it seemed, terrified the net tape as it sizzled just over. I do hope the young man can repeat this display, perhaps with a little caution thrown in at appropriate times; if he can, Dan is going places!
During changes of end, I nipped across to Centre Court to catch snippets of the Kasiri-Milton match; well, perhaps 'nipped' is no longer appropriate - these days, players could have a good training session running laps of me! This was a real clay-courters' duel; long periods of semi-moonballing, torpid rallies causing yawns among spectators weaned on more ambitious stuff - then, all of a sudden, one of the lads would spot an opening and, immediately, the ball would be whizzing back and forth for two or three strokes till the point was won.
I then settled myself to watch a young Scot making his debut in senior tennis; like another correspondent, I anticipated a very one-sided match, and hoped Calum could avoid a bagel or two. Gee whiz! It was nothing like that. Though clearly very nervous in the beginning and very under-powered throughout in comparison to his Australian opponent - not unexpected for such a young man - Calum put up a terrific display, much to the pleasure of a couple of dozen spectators watching closely. Calum showed a great range of shots, plenty of variation and remarkable court-craft for a youngster. His game, when at its best, was based on keeping a very full length and moving his much more experienced adversary around, seemingly at will. At 3-2 in the second set, Calum took a heavily-deuced Durek service game, held his own serve, and just when we thought he would soon be serving for the set, he broke the Aussie serve again, this time more comfortably - one set apiece! At the opening of the final set, Calum suddenly looked tired and lost his ability to pepper the base line. As a result, Durek was able to dispatch half-court balls with some authority; suddenly, it was 0-2. Calum dug deep, found unexpected (to me, at least) reserves and lo-and-behold had pulled back to two all. Another couple of games without the full length Calum seems to need meant another break and hold; defeat loomed, and though Calum fought hard, he couldn't retrieve the break and went down 4-6. What a display for a first-timer, though!
James Ward came through his match with Matt Illingworth without undue alarm except for a single break of serve early in the second set; James looked serene throughout, while Matthew ran his heart out in a great display of determination.
Nearby, an all-Italian encounter saw the blond-haired, goatee-bearded Alessandro Da Col race away from his compatriot, much to Torresi's distress - much racket-throwing ensued, which eventually brought a formal warning from the umpire, unusual in Futures, in my limited experience.
I caught the first three games of what looked like being a very one-sided match between James Feaver and a very impressive Guillermo Olaso, thoroughly justifying his seeding. At that point, I moved to the Centre Court, to watch 'our own' Edward Seator in front of a three-figure crowd, 75% of them being a couple of school parties, behaving immaculately - well done, you youngsters; congratulations to the teachers. The match I saw belied the scoreline; Edward was the better player! Rodriguez played a safety-first match, not hitting too near the lines, not keeping the ball low over the net; Edward, in contrast, seemed to be going for broke most of the time. He hit lots of cracking winners but, sadly, rather more losers! The men's respective service-actions seemed to epitomise their games. The Frenchman simply ****ed his racket; at the moment of ball-release, the racket was stationary just behind his right ear - those of you with long memories, think Sandy Lyle at his peak, hitting a tee shot; the backswing was irrelevant, merely a way of getting the club in position for the downswing. In total contrast, Edward's serve begins with an extravagant lean forward over his left leg, the right being raised from the ground; at the point of the ball-toss, his racket is between his legs, slightly behind the inside of the left ankle! Edward's forehand and backhand are formidable, but involve quite a wind-up - sometimes, he simply didn't have time for it. Now, I'm no tennis coach, but, to me, it seems that Edward's strokes have so many 'moving parts' that it's all too easy for something to break down somewhere in the action. Perhaps, though, his coach has a clever master-plan involving allowing the young man to enjoy the wildness of his exciting game, then bringing the strokes under control later when he's ready to make a real assault on the ranking list. I do hope so, for while I would happily pay to watch Edward play, I wouldn't, at the moment, put any of that money on a Seator win!