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Jamie Baker has wanted to be the new Tim Henman for long enough not to be stopped short by somebody else getting there first. Like Andy Murray, Baker is another 18-year-old Scot with immense tennis promise. Unlike with Murray, however, nobody really knows this yet. While Murray was making his name at Wimbledon last month, Baker was playing a Futures tournament in Turkey. Murray has taken the fast lane, but Baker would contend that they are on the same road. And they certainly share the same drive.

He may be behind Murray, but Baker is still ahead of Henman at the same age. He knows this for a fact because he makes constant reference to a document called ‘Henman’s Progress’ which details the now British No 1’s world status through the years. “I have a sheet of Tim’s ranking from when he was 18 to where he is now,” says Baker. “Because tennis is such an individual sport it’s hard to know where you are so for me it’s a helpful rough guide. Henman wasn’t a high flier. He wasn’t a (Rafael) Nadal (who won this year’s French Open at 19, he wasn’t even an Andy Murray. It was only in his early 20s that he came to prominence.”

At 17, Henman was 750 in the world. Baker, at the end of last year, was 690. At 18, Henman had reached 434 by the end of the calendar year which means being inside the world’s top 450 is Baker’s target for 2005. “If I don’t make it, it’s not do or die,” he shrugs, “it’s just one path. It’s good to have some kind of idea, though. I use Nadal as an inspiration rather than anything else. If I tried to compare myself to Nadal I ’d probably hang up my racket, everyone my age would. Players like him, like Sampras, like Becker, they’re freaks, that’s not the norm.” Baker’s current ranking is 525 in the world. That is more the norm.

“I don’t see myself in the slow lane or anything like that. I’ve been on the senior tour for only six months. This time last year my ranking was about 1200 so that’s quite an acceleration. My progress is as fast as I expected. I’ve known Andy Murray since he was six and, sure, it’s a little bit hard to see him play on Wimbledon Centre Court, but what it does tell me is the gap in level where he was playing a few months back and now maybe isn’t that big. Andy’s life has changed now because every match he’ll play the press are going to be at him. For me, if I can let everyone else have the attention, I’ll sneak through the back door.”

Baker is playing the long game. Success on the Futures tour means the Challengers tour and more there means entry to the main ATP events. Baker won a tournament in Mexico earlier this year, but needs more of the same: Futures quarter- finals are fine but only offer two ranking points. Outright victory is 12: it is prizes that make points. “Tennis is ruthless. You either win or you lose, there are no half-measures. The most important thing is not to get stuck at a level. A lot of players are experiencing that in the Futures, they’ve no money so fight like dogs.”

He knows what it will take to number himself among the world’s best. He has known for a long time. When Baker was 13 he left his Glasgow home to relocate to a tennis performance school in Loughborough. Eight months later he had developed a knee injury. It started as nothing. A bit of swelling, perhaps, but grew into a serious problem. “One of the specialists told me it might not even heal,” remembers Baker. “You can imagine how hard that was to take at 14. I found out how much I liked tennis and how much I wanted to pursue it.”

Baker took an enforced nine months off. Had he not stopped when he did he might never have recovered. “If I’d played on for longer without resting then it really would have been all over,” he says. No surgery was required, only rest. Baker’s body could relax, but his mind would not. So he wrote a book. Its title was ‘Tennis: more than just a game’. Its synopsis: everything you need to know about how to become a top tennis player. Its author, remember, was a bed-ridden 14-year-old, but you couldn’t accuse him of lying down on the job.

To read the full article go to : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2094-1688793,00.html