Good points steven and indiana - another point about Jamie's career high is that it was achieved despite not playing in Jan/Feb due to injury.

This really has been a year of famine in terms of British Challenger success - James, Jamie and Alex are to be commended for continuing to focus their attention on the Challenger circuit in order to raise their profiles, games and rankings - albeit with limited success impacted by injury, form and fitness. But at least it shows they have the desire and ambition to move upwards. With James and Jamie, with the addition of 5% to their power, tactical plans and mental resolve you really could see a breakthrough happening to the next level closer to a 100 ranking - it may not happen, but they certainly look "at home" at this level, if not consistent performers.

I really do hope Josh keeps his word and goes for it in 2013 towards a top 100-150 ranking, and the ONLY way to do this is by focussing on challengers and figuring out an approach in them which is likely to be more successful - playing futures and playing in a passive way hoping for mistakes in challengers hasn't got the job done in the past - unless he does something different I fear he'll get the same result. I'm not sure even if he changes things up it would make a difference, but you have to try.

It will be very interesting to see if the "next generation" players (the Goldings, Marsaleks, Hewitts, Broadys, Edmunds, etc) or the "next level below James/Jamie and still young" players (Dan, Dan, Dan, Alex, Neil etc) try to ramp up their exposure to Challenger events - you could easily see any of them making a break-through to a semi final with a fair wind, lucky draw and good form - which could be the start of a bigger push. Their choice of schedule may tell us a lot about their level of ambition and self-belief.

What has been interesting for me in the last 2 weeks is to look at the Russian Donskoy and take learnings. He won Loughborough and just won in Siberia. 2 wins in 3 weeks. In total, he has won 5 Challenger titles this year and lost in the final of 1 other - a fantastic performance really. A great person to learn from I'd say. Did I think he was a great player - no, not especially - most of the time he was worse than all his opponents, especially early on.

- Against James Marsalek at Loughborough James was on top for a set and a half, then Donskoy upped the power and aggression and stopped making mistakes, but there still really wasn't much in it, even at the end. Crucially James played a positive and aggressive game, going for his shots - he was maybe slightly more passive when close to the line as Donskoy upped his game, and perhaps that made just enough difference to start to tip the balance. It really was a tiny margin.

- Donskoy was on the brink in a couple of matches in Siberia - even worse than against James in one match - but at key moments you noticed him really focus, and the opponent blink - and that was enough once again to change things. The key point for me is that for most of all 4 matches I watched - he was either playing worse or at the same level as his opponent in terms of pure tennis, but won all 4 because of how he and his opponent changed on the big points or at key moments. In those moments each point counts double or triple. This has little to do with tennis. It's either in-built, or a learned behaviour. The contrast of Donskoy to Jamie and some of the other Brits in recent Challengers is stark. They are so close in many matches, but can't quite cross the line.

- Can you train for this? Are there routines you can go through to practice this? Are there people out there who thrived at clutch moments who can share their wisdom? Does Andy have an approach he uses? Unless there is a gulf in class of pure tennis, and in a game where 1 or 2 points typically cost the match, this sort of mental/psycho stuff is probably what matters most - so I'd love to know how the LTA is approaching this. Anyone know? 

I'm looking forward to 2013 - I'm going to be positive and predict 3 Challenger wins. 1 For James, 1 for Jamie and one wildcard (probably one of either James/Jamie again, but I hope its one of the new generation)