Bill Lothian 10/08/2020

Few tennis players can be feeling the frustration of the interruption to tournament play more than Edinburgh prospect Scott Duncan.

The 25-year-old, who first picked up a racquet almost as soon as he could walk, recently completed his time at Stirling University by adding a Masters in Psychology of Sport to a degree in Sports Studies and was readying himself for a determined assault on the full-time tour.

Cue the coronavirus which has meant his world rankings – 1388 in singles from a high of 1276 and 848 in doubles from a high of 424 – were suspended in March this year.

“The real frustration stems from the fact I was just beginning to get some momentum, picking up some ATP (ranking) points and so on” said Scott, a former footballer with Cramond and Salvesens Boys Clubs whose tennis career has taken him as far as Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and other parts of the globe.

What Scott means by momentum is building on other successes including just before lockdown winning the Tennis Scotland Open Tour Masters event. To qualify for such a prestigious tournament players had to be in the top 16 of this country’s leaderboard.

Also, Scott had won both singles and doubles events at the British Universities Championships as well as Futures Tour events in Nottingham and Belarus while starting to consistently pick up coveted ATP Tour ranking points.

“There is a possibility that tournaments could begin in Europe at the end of this month but with quarantine restrictions I don’t know how viable these would be to play in” he said, adding:

“When competitive play returns stepping up from Futures to (second tier) Challenger events more regularly is my initial goal and we’ll just see how far I can go free from any study pressure.”

A former Scottish junior champion at under-16 and under-18, Scott is aiming to keep in touch with his former University which helped propel him into the Great Britain Students team at the World University Games in Naples (see photograph) among other achievements.

By contrast with other emergent Scottish tennis talents Scott never felt the need to go abroad to develop his career.

“Stirling had everything I needed including a tremendous coach in Euan McGinn assisted by Nick Rosenzweig.

“Euan was even prepared to hit with me regularly at 7am.

“I had all the physical training I needed and at least four hours court time each day.

“Stirling was also close enough I could bring my washing home!” he says.

Stirling Uni are repaying the compliment by offering Scott a role assisting with coaching the up-and-coming generation when he is not on tour and there is a racquet discount from Yonex and a stringing deal with German firm MSV to further encourage him.

All a far cry from when he started out in the Barnton Park men’s fourth team around the time he was being coached by Edinburgh Leisure’s coach Alex Harkins before spending a “few seasons” playing East League matches in the club 2nd team.

“That period was so important to my development” says Scott “as I learned from team-mates about how to play against older players, especially in doubles.

“It was a great grounding.”

Scott Duncan's Tennis achievements since 2017

2017 – Reached the Final of ITF Futures Doubles in Sri Lanka in June.

2017 – Selected to represent Great Britain Universities at the Master’U BNP Paribas event in France – winning the Gold medal.

2018 - Reached the Final of ITF Futures doubles event in Tunisia in February.

2018 - Reached the Quarter-final of ATP Challenger doubles event in Glasgow in May.

 2018 - Reached the Quarter-final of ATP Challenger doubles event in Loughborough in May.

2018 - Reached the Final of ITF Futures Doubles Event in Israel in June.

2018 - Achieved an ATP Singles point in Belarus in August.

2018 - Winner of ITF Futures doubles title in Belarus in August.

 2018 - Winner of ITF Futures doubles title in Nottingham in September.

2018 - Achieved an ATP singles point in Nottingham in September.

2019 - Won BUCS National Doubles Championships in March.

2019 - Won BUCS National Singles Championships in April.

2019 – Reached the Final of ITF Futures Doubles Event in Sunderland in April.

2019 – Achieved ATP singles point in Hong Kong in June 2019.

2019 – Achieved ATP singles point in Dublin in July.

2019 – Represented Great Britain at the World University Games in Napoli in July.

2019 – Qualified for singles main draw ATP Challenger event in Glasgow in September.

2019 – Achieved ATP singles point in Shrewsbury in September.

2020 – Winner of the Tennis Scotland Open Tour Masters singles event.