I can’t have been the only one that assumed Scottish tennis was going to fall off a cliff with the retirement of Andy Murray earlier this year.
Given we’d become accustomed to a Scot being at the sharp end of tennis’ biggest tournaments for over a decade, it wasn’t exactly a leap to predict that without him, being a tennis-loving Scot wouldn’t ever be the same again.
In some respects, I’m right; yes, there's Cameron Norrie but, at age 29, is nearer the end of his career than the start so watching tennis in 2025 and beyond won’t be the same without Murray.
But there’s been some glimmers that being a Scottish tennis fan without Murray to support won’t be the lost cause that I and many others reasonably thought it might have been.
With perfect timing, not one but two young Scottish men have begun to show glimpses that they could, potentially, become truly world-class players.
Jake Fearnley and Charlie Robertson, with impeccable precision, have timed their breakthroughs to coincide almost exactly with Murray’s decision to hang up his racquet.
Let’s start with Fearnley, as he’s much further along his journey towards the top of the game.
Now 23, those years honing his skills in the brutal world of US college tennis are paying off.
The Edinburgh player first came to prominence earlier this year by winning his maiden Challenger title, the Nottingham Open, which led to him being awarded a wildcard for Wimbledon.
A first round victory landed him a match against the most successful male player ever, Novak Djokovic, and it appeared a thumping was on the cards for Fearnley. But instead, the Scot showed remarkable resistance and was within touching distance of taking the Serb into a fifth set only to eventually fall to a highly competitive four set defeat.
Fearnley’s ability to live with Djokovic on Wimbledon’s centre court may have been his most eye-catching result of the year but I’d argue his past two months have been far more impressive than that one-off performance.
Since the start of August, Fearnley has won three Challenger titles, making it four for the year, with his run of form ensuring he broke into the world’s top 100 earlier this week.
Given he was ranked 646 at the start of this year, it’s a remarkable rise by anyone’s standards.
Fearnley likely has a few more outings to come this season but the most significant by-product of his rise into the top 100 is he’ll now bypass the qualifying rounds of the grand slam tournaments and will go straight into the main draw. So, Australian Open 2025, here he comes.
At age 17, Robertson is considerably younger than his compatriot but he’s also showing signs that he has a rare talent.
Ranked 10th in the world junior rankings, there’s little doubt the Dundonian is a talent but – and I’m sure he’d be the first to acknowledge this – there’s a world of difference between being a good junior tennis player and a good senior one. Time will tell if he’s going to be the latter.
What the emergence of both Fearnley and Robertson suggests, though, is that the retirement of Murray is perhaps not quite as devastating for Scottish tennis as most would have thought this time last year.
However, both Fearnley and Robertson will have to deal with the obvious comparisons to Murray – who has a personal relationship with Robertson having practiced and supported the teenager in recent months – with the question of are they going to “fill Murray’s shoes” likely to be consistently asked.
Firstly, filling Murray’s shoes is an impossible task. I’ll predict right now that neither Fearnley nor Robertson will achieve the level of success Murray did.
That’s absolutely no slight on either player, though. I also predict no Swiss and no Serb will replicate the success of Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic.
That’s ok.
Not being as good as Murray is something 99.9 percent of the people who have ever picked up a tennis racquet have to deal with.
Which is why I was slightly concerned to read Robertson’s comments earlier in the week that he believes he could “become as good as him if not better” than the former world number one.
I have no trouble with someone thinking that, I’m not sure how helpful it is for a 17-year-old to be saying it in interviews.
These kind of comments pile a lot of unnecessary pressure upon one’s shoulders.
But I’m here to be proven wrong by Robertson – he wouldn’t be the first to do it.
In the short-term, Fearnley’s the one to keep an eye on.
He’s now the British number three behind Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie and is at a point where he’ll be able to get into the grand slams and many Masters draws by right.
His success on the Challenger Tour suggests he’s equipped to make the step up – winning one Challenger tournament is hard, never mind three – so now it’s a case of transferring that form into higher-level tournaments.
For Robertson, his first season as a professional will be more about learning the ropes rather than winning but moving up the rankings will be vital.
It would be a real delight if Fearnley and Robertson can plug the hole that Murray has left – although it’s surely too much to ask that we find another talent of Murray’s ilk quite so soon.
