Jonny O’Mara may not have enjoyed the tennis success of his fellow Scot Andy Murray, but he has been holding his own against the former world number one from the comfort of his living room.
With professional tennis suspended since March, players have been looking for innovative ways of keep fit, with video conference technology coming to the aid of O’Mara, 25, and some of his fellow British pros.
Zoom work-outs with Jamie Murray, Aidan McHugh and Neal Skupski have been set up by Andy Murray.
“Andy said, ‘lets get on Zoom’, each one of us can run a workout, and we have called it ‘Core Belief’,” O’Mara told BBC Scotland.
“We try and experiment as much as we can with the limited space. It has been quite good fun. You have got a day to plan it, there are some challenges. Andy can’t do any jumping so you are trying to keep it as difficult as you can without that.
“It is obviously difficult being on your own, so it is good to feel like part of a nice little group. And the session this morning I ran beautifully so there were no complaints from anyone.”
Jamie Murray has been in talks with the Lawn Tennis Association about putting on a closed-doors event in London for the UK’s top ranked players, with the prospect of something similar in Scotland also being mooted.
And Arbroath’s O’Mara, who is 54th in the world doubles rankings, believes there is an opportunity to grow the game in his homeland.
“It really is a great time to create a real good national tournament base because there will be a big market for people playing tournaments without travelling,” O’Mara added.
“It would be a great time to really use what Andy and Jamie have done and create a great tennis system in Scotland for people to compete and not feel like they have to travel until they are a bit older.”
O’Mara and playing partner Marcelo Arevalo reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open earlier this year and he is optimistic about his chances of building on that good form.
He said: “I had never made the quarter-final of a slam before, that was a huge goal for me so it gives me confidence that I was able to play at a level that I was able to be competitive in one the biggest tournaments in the world.
“It is obviously a bit frustrating not being able to keep the momentum but at the same time it is very important to know that you have the level to do that.”
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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