COLIN Fleming, Scotland's latest doubles hopeful, believes maturity has been key to the success he and Ken Skupski, from Liverpool, have enjoyed over the last year.
Both men completed degrees before they teamed up in late 2008 but now, in their mid-20s, they have found their feet on the ATP Tour and will represent Great Britain in this weekend's Davis Cup tie against Lithuania in Vilnius.
Wallet Fake Handbags "I have no regrets about the path I've taken to my current position," Fleming said. "Having a solid degree behind me gives me a nice insurance policy should my tennis not work out and that probably eases the pressure a bit.
"My time at uni also allowed me to develop physically and mentally, which made me better equipped for life on the Tour. Ken and I feel the same way about this and would be quick to recommend the uni option to aspiring youngsters."
After school, Skupski won a tennis scholarship at Louisiana State University, while Fleming was able to combine his tennis with study via the University of Stirling's tennis programme.
Of their partnership, the Broxburn-born player added: "We first teamed up at a Futures tournament in Glasgow in November 2008, where we won the tournament. Since then we've moved through the levels and rankings to our position now of playing on ATP events most weeks, which is great.
"We have a similar outlook on our tennis and are fairly settled off the court. This makes travelling together easy. On court, Ken is left-handed and I'm right-handed, so that keeps our opponents guessing."
Team Flemski as the pair have been dubbed - "We thought about changing to KenCo to try and attract some sponsorship from a certain coffee brand", Fleming joked - are now just outside the top 50 in the world rankings.
Having beaten the world No.1-ranked Bryan brothers from the USA at Queen's Club last June, then Zodiac Replica Watch won their first ATP titles in September and November, they won their first grand slam match at the Australian Open in January, beating Janko Tipsarevic and Yen-Hsun Lun 7-5, 6-4 before losing narrowly to Michael Kohlmann and Jarkko Nieminen. They have since suffered four straight defeats in Tour events, but John Lloyd, the Great Britain team captain, has targeted a doubles win in Vilnius, and they will be overwhelming favourites to deliver one.
"The last four weeks have been disappointing for us but we've done a lot of work in those weeks to try and keep improving," said the Scot, who played with Ross Hutchins in the Davis Cup loss to Ukraine last March, then sat on the sidelines with Skupski as Britain were relegated to Group II by Poland in September.
"We are both really looking forward to the Davis Cup. I love playing as part of a team and representing your country is always a proud moment. We want to gain a vital win for the team and that would also help put our season back on track.
"The Aussie Open was a great experience. The grand slams are special events and very different to play in. Emotions and tensions are high and every player wants to bring their absolute best. To win our first grand slam match was a great feeling, up there with any of our other successes. The tight loss in the second round was bitterly disappointing and shows how far we've come in a short space of time as we expected more from ourselves in that situation.
"We have raised our own expectations on the back of last year, but also have to accept the major
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