For the last ten years, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski have been at the forefront of Britsh Tennis. Now Andy Murray has taken over as the sole tennis superstar the country has too offer.

Many other players have tried and failed to gain respect in the game, notably Jeremy Bates, Chris Wilkinson, Mark Petchey and, more recently, Alex Bogdanovic, all eventually failing.  Jamie Baker is the new kid on the block and at only 21 years of age is already making a breakthrough on the senior tour. But just how good is he?

Andy Murrays' fellow Scot is a big, big talent.  Once ranked as high as No. 6 in the junior world rankings and having reached the junior Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2004, Baker is now showing his talent on the professional tour, and 2007 was the best of his career so far.

'The young Glaswegian is showing a great deal of maturity and he still only 21, one year older than Murray'


Still developing a name for himself, the Brit played mostly on the Challenger and Futures circuits across the globe, trying to pick up valuable ranking points to enable him to enter larger tournaments.  Baker rose over 100 places in 2007 and had numerous good results, mainly in the States and the UK.

He started the year with an excellent  appearance in the Waikoloa challenger followed by a semi-final spot in Joplin on the U.S. hard courts. He then went on to win a futures tournament in Sunderland  before winning his first ATP tour level match at the prestigous Stella Artois tournament at London's Queen Club. 

Baker, who was inspired by Pete Sampras as a youngster, continued his 2007 success story with semi-final appearances in Knoxville and Lexington as the year came to an end.  He reached a career high of 211 in November.

At the start of 2008 Baker was ranked 217 and had enough ranking points to enter the main ATP tour event in Auckland, New Zealand. He did well in his qualifying rounds defeating experienced Brazilian tour player Andre Sa and a lesser known Korean opponent before losing in the 3rd qualifying round to Thomas Cakl.  Baker felt these matches had given him valuable experience and off he went to prepare for his next challenge, qualifying for the Australian open. 

In soaring heat, the young Scot managed three excellent wins against higher ranked players. First he defeated talented Russian  world No. 120 Yuri Schukin 6-2 6-0 before defeating experienced Austrians Alexander Peya and Daniel Koellerer ranked 174 and 163 respectively to qualify for his first grand slam event, besides his Wimbledon wild card appearances.

He enhanced his prospects of playing singles for Britain in next month's Davis Cup tie in Argentina when he qualified to meet giant Croat Ivo Karlovic in the first round of the Australian Open.

The young Glaswegian is showing a great deal of maturity and he still only 21, one year older than Murray. If he can continue to handle the pressure well Baker has every chance of reaching the top 100 by the end of the year,  and who knows from then on! The aggressive youngster is certainly a name to look out for in the future, and who knows how well he can develop.