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Interview with Jamie during New Zealand F2, in Blenheim:

Young Scot steadily climbs the rankings:

Rising Scottish tennis player Jamie Baker took a punt venturing down under for five professional events in Australia and New Zealand, but the 19 year old's performances over the past month have meant the decision has paid off.

Baker and coach Keith Reynolds are in Blenheim this week for the KIA Motors US$15,000 Men's Futures 1 event, the fourth week of play since they left their British base in late January. The number three seed in Blenheim, Baker takes the court in today's quarterfinals against American sixth seed Scott Lipsky.

The trip produced a number of firsts for Baker who continues to climb the ATP rankings. "Things have been going pretty good for me," the 338th-ranked player said.

"I started pretty well in Burnie (Tasmania), I reached the quarterfinals of a challenger for the first time. Then I got ambushed in the second week (Sydney) where I lost in the first round. I recovered last week to reach the final, my first in a US$15,000 event even though I had won a couple of US$10,000 events."

Baker had been a successful junior, climbed as high as six in the ITF junior rankings and reached the singles quarterfinals at Wimbledon juniors in 2004, before embarking fulltime on the ITF men's circuit 13 months ago. He expects to break into the senior men's top 300 when the next ranking list was released.

"That was a target before I came on the trip. Everything is ranking-based at the moment. No tournament is more important than another." Baker hoped to be confirmed next week in Scotland's Davis Cup squad to take on Serbia in his hometown of Glasgow.

He said yesterday he felt at home in New Zealand. "The scenery is spectacular. This is similar to Scotland but you don't have the miserable weather."

He moved from Glasgow to an English midlands base at Nottingham when he was 13, linking up with Reynolds for the first time. His coach, one of two people who look after Baker's interests, said Blenheim was the ideal environment for his player to excel. "This is what it's all about. It's a mixture of professional and amateur. It's a very nice club with very good facilities but really on the whole it's the volunteer work which make this place tick. It's appropriate for this level of tennis.

A good performance in Blenheim and at the New Zealand Futures 2 in Hamilton next week would go a long way to getting him into the more lucrative Challenger events (US$25,000-US$75,000) regularly.

"This is a pretty crucial junction for Jamie because of the ranking he's at. A few more places up and he'll start to be assured of Challengers. He's right at the cusp.

"Whereas Futures are often back to back, Challengers are more dispersed, more one-off travel arrangements."

After Hamilton, the pair head back to Britain for a training block with his other coach. "To keep the whole arrangement fresh he'll go back and have time with Martin (Weston)."

Reynolds, who also runs an independent tennis centre, was confident his young charge would continue to climb the rankings.

"I have seen him continue to grow. He's got the essential talent you need to have. He turns up for work both physically and mentally on a daily basis."