edit: this is from todays Times

TWO years ago my ranking was in the 600s and the Davis Cup was something that Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski did for Great Britain. Today, in Ukraine, I may find out that I’m playing for my country for the first time and that fills me with wonder.

If it happens, there will be no prouder man in sport. If I’m not selected, I hope that the experiences I’ve had in the past seven days and the effort I’m going to put into the next few years mean that there will be a time for me some day.

I first heard from John Lloyd, the Britain captain, during the Challenger event in New York’s Bronx before the US Open and he made it clear that he was going to choose five players, that there was a possible singles spot up for grabs because he wasn’t sure how Greg was health-wise and our attitude was going to be all important. It was a surprise for me because Josh Goodall was playing extremely well and I’d been in some really tough tournaments in the US, results not what I’d wanted them to be.

The original plan was for Jamie Delgado, Alan Mackin and me to play a few matches at a training camp in Vienna, to simulate best-of-five-set matches and see who came out best, but Alan chose to play a tournament in France rather than join us. I missed three Challenger events to be here, but these are huge opportunities that don’t come along very often and my feeling is to hell with my ranking for three weeks. I couldn’t give a damn whether I’m ranked 300 (my present position) 350, 250 or 400.

My aim is the top 100. It’s about hitting the jackpot, about being in the big time. What I’m learning here from people like John, Peter Lundgren and, since he arrived on Monday, Brad Gilbert is immense.

Andy Murray has arrived and he’s in top form. What a very special talent he is — something really different in the sport. We’re not short of voices in the locker-room or on the ride to and from the hotel. With John, Greg and Brad talking, there’s not much room for anyone else to get a word in edgeways.

I hit from 9am until 1pm yesterday and at one stage I looked around and there was Andy at the net post, Brad’s making comments all the time and Peter is taking the session.

Peter is very much a people person — he has coached Roger Federer, Marcelo Rios and Marat Safin and all three are pretty explosive characters. Federer was as bad-tempered as hell in his teenage days. I sense that Peter looks for signs as to what kind of person you are and once he’s comfortable, he starts handing out the information.

I haven’t played anything on clay this year and hard courts are my best surface, but I spent 18 months training for hours on it in Spain. I’ve been doing a hell of a lot of training, I’m the fittest I’ve been and at 20 my body can do so much more than it could when I was 18.

This isn’t a place I’d particularly choose to come to. It’s fairly basic, the venue is a run-of-the-mill club in the woods with one of a block of four courts cordoned off at one end, where a stand is being built for 1,000 people. The court isn’t very good, either, slippery with a lot of uneven bounce. They are ugly conditions. The captain has kept things pretty light-hearted, but I believe he’s not going to be afraid of making really difficult decisions.

I want to play, even if I’ll probably have to be content with a dead rubber once we’ve won. If Greg says he’s fit, I’m sure he’ll play. And Delgy has been brilliant around the net in practice — he’s a certainty for the doubles.