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Be wary, a certain man called Roger Federer never set the junior world alight and look how he turned out.

But it's good to see good news for British Tennis for once. If Murray can get to 3rd in the rankings and avoid Nadal in the semis of slams... who knows what can happen then? A major for him, inspiring kids up and down the country into playing tennis....

The holy grail has always been having a group of talented and committed players, pushing each other to achieve more, and sharing the pressure, rather than having a single player by himself (Henman, followed by Murray) carrying the weight of the country's expectations.

Fingers crossed, it looks as if the vast investment by the LTA is finally starting to deliver results.

Hold your horses. We've been here before with promising juniors. Lets hope they make it with the apparent top work ethic and ruthlessness that they are displaying. Good luck to them, so far so good.

But it's alarmingly conventional for us to hype the juniors up and heap the pressure on them. Though it's pessimistic - as the seemingly brain dead British tennis regime has taught me to be - I don't think we should be jumping on the bandwagon just yet.

And not long ago the NTC was exactly what was wrong with the British tennis ideology according to most tennis journalists and reporters, a waste of money spent erroneously - the question of why not 40 indoor centres for £1m each rather than 1 for £40m was bandied about rather a lot. Now, with a hint of potential success on the horizon, it's the 'key to young players development'? Slightly hypocritical.

Roger Federer won junior Wimbledon and lost in the US Open final (might have been to Nalbandian I think) in 1998. He also ended the year ranked number 1 and won the Orange Bowl. So I'd hardly say that he did not set the world alight as a junior. A lot was expected of him as a result of what he did as a junior and struggled under this expectation initially. That the problem that could arise with these guys and what they probably most need to be careful of, because by the time they properly get on tour you imagine the likes of Federer and Nadal - because of the way he plays - won't be around.

Pleasure to read. Tennis talnt development is an odds game - from where the guys stand today, I imagine there must be a 10% or 20% chance at best of a top 50 future. The difference is the number of guys we now have knocking on the door...remember our US Open Junior champ didn't play. Not to mention Robson, Watson etc. Keeping them very much crossed!

At long last it looks like there are junior players in Britain that look likely to shake up the Tennis perspective in the country. With Hoyt, Edmund and Bambridge all being 16, plus Broady, Golding and Morgan being around the age of 17/18, competition is bound to heat up.

It's a long and arduous road ahead for all of these players to prove that they are not just a flash in the pan and they should look to make the transition to senior tournaments sooner rather than later to really put their talent and resolve to the test.

Hats off to Greg Rusedski as he is the exact type of personality that British tennis needs to really progress on the men's side of things. People forget that he is a former US Open finalist and world number 4 and that he did not get to that position by accident. His experience and lively nature can only encourage these younger players into becoming as good as they want to be. He also did a good job with James Ward in the last couple of years.

Good luck the lads!

@4 Sorry, I meant Nadal. I knew it was either Federer or Nadal that never did much at junior level. I picked the wrong one!!

@TSC - Come on Martin Gould

Erm, you're still wrong I'm afraid. Nadal was winning men's tournaments on the Futures and Challenger tours at the age of 15. He played almost exclusively on clay at that time, so he didn't enter any of the junior Slams, but he turned pro at that age and won the men's FO when he was only 19 at his first attempt - that FO also was the tournament in which he beat a 29 year old record for the most consecutive victories on clay (53).

In fact, his record as a junior is almost removed by the fact he turned pro so early and started winning - he won his first ATP level match at 15. It's almost like he didn't have a proper "junior" career.

You do him a disservice with that statement. I am no fan of his style of play but you cannot deny his accomplishments, and at such a young age.

maybe the performance side is beginning to get sorted. british tennis is finally got a good structure from mini tennis all the way to the likes of Golding etc. we cant get ahead of ourselves. all this hype can destroy a career. look at americas donald young. an amazing junior career but now has taken a couple of years building up through the futures and challengers.

in my opinion there is still so much the lta need to do to improve the image of tennis and make it more accessible. for example as a nation we dazzle in how amazing wimbledon is, and yes it is a great spectacle, buut!

the image of most sports now in britain is that there all becoming to british. look at the difference in all the slams in tennis, wimbledon is the only mega event that when the likes of federer plays nadal the only noise is clapping? am sorry but whats wrong with noise? atmosphere is what makes events stand out. if you can mix any two togethor it would have to be wimbledon and the aussie. passionate fans plus a historic event makes for a strong legacy and can inspire both future players but also future fans! Davis cup too, did anyone see france spain in madrid? what an atmosphere!! why cant we have that for our davis cup? does it come down to the quality of the product? the quality of the reputation? the standard of opposition? Yes to them all, okay we have won promotion so the opposition will increase in difficulty but the reputation outside wimbledon and queens aint much.

more people should follow the lead of the atmosphere and chants set my the guys and girls from stirling uni. thasts how its done. The players feed off the passion of the crowd. we as brits should stop with the nicy nicy and allow ourselves to let go. and enjoy, shout and support!

Its promising, but then so were Jamie Delgado, Martin Lee, Miles Kasiri etc as juniors. I guess the sheer volume of players this time gives us more hope - but the LTA has hardly given us much reason for optimism over the years. Question is, is this current number of 15-18 year olds unusual in global terms, or do France, Spain and Australia etc have the same number or more?

Spaced
While what you say about Jamie Delgado etc is true, and the LTA has overseen more false dawns than any other organisation in the world, the success that this group of young players is having (3 of 4 USO semi finalists, Junior Davis Cup) suggests that as a group we have more good players than our possible competitors.

Certainly some reasons for optimism, especially because it is a group who all seem to be at similar levels and so could potentially challenge each other and spur each other on to improvements. At the very least, it shouldn't be that long before we've got more than one man making ATP main event draws by right.

I would suggest if any of these lads made it as consistent top 100/50 players, that would be a success compared where we have been for the last 10 years relying on one or two exceptional performers with nothing else behind it.

Leon Smith should be inviting all these young guys to every Davis cup match for the next year or two as they will be playing in them soon. It will also help their development if they are used as hitting partners with Andy Murray. Lets hope they come through and aspire to be as good or better than Andy.

I got really interested in tennis when I was about 11, It was watching Rusedski get to the US Open final against Pat Rafter caught me. Since then I ahve followed tennis immensely at the top level, but what I want to ask, is how many current pros on tour habve been a junior no1 or won the junior davis cup? How many ex junior no1's go on and do it professionally. I read when Dolgopolov played Murray that they were regularly competing against one another in the juniors and that Dolgopolov was the better player, look how its turned now, Murray consistently top4 for last 2 years and Dolgopolov just starting to break the top20

@8,

Yeah, Nadal beat Ramon Delgado (in straight sets) when Nadal was 15 years old. Only a few years before that, Delgado had beaten Sampras at Roland Garros.

Mind you, as I recall Richard Gasquet was a more promising 15-year-old than Nadal.

Actually, it looks like there wasn't much between Nadal and Gasquet at that age.

Gasquet beat Franco Squillari in Monte Carlo. Two years prior to that, Squillari had been in the semi-finals of Roland Garros.

A month before Gasquet's 16th birthday, he won the opening set against Albert Costa at Roland Garros. Costa went on to win the tournament.

Isn't it great to see Scotland's No1 win his 19th title?

As for the new young hopefulls, let's hope the LTA don't make another monumental bawzup. Scotland's No1 didn't give that mob a wide berth for nothing!

It would be great if this was the beginning of new era for British tennis - time will tell.

Andy Murray is angling for the No 3 spot - winning tournaments the big 3 have not entered. Ironic given the outcry over too much tennis being played -still it proves he is best of the rest.

It's been a couple of hours or so since Scotland's No1 beat Marcos Bagdhatis in Tokyo and still nae report on the 'EBC'.

Can Overends get his finger oot pronto?

Eventually it turns up, but short, dire and hardly worth a read!