AIDAN MCHUGH admits that it is somewhat strange walking into Scotstoun Leisure Centre and being confronted with a plethora of posters of himself.

As the biggest Scottish name playing in this week’s inaugural Glasgow Trophy tennis tournament, McHugh has the spotlight on him like never before and while it is something of a new experience for the 17-year-old, he is refusing to pay too much attention to his new-found celebrity status.

“It’s pretty cool,” he said,

“But I’m just trying to focus on my tennis and not look at the posters too much – in fact, I’m not looking at them at all! It’s a bit weird but it’s nice as well.”

With the rest of the Scottish contingent knocked-out in qualifying, McHugh is the last man standing in terms of home interest having been granted a wildcard into the main draw. He begins his campaign against Frenchman David Guez today and with his opponent seeded third, McHugh will have no time to ease himself in.

But having reached the semi-finals of the ITF Tunisia F16 at the weekend, the teenager is in good form and is confident of putting in a good performance against the world number 288.

“I’m happy to play the higher ranker guys,” the teenager said.

“I don’t know much about him but it’ll be a tough match because he knows what he’s doing. I’ll just try and enjoy it.”

McHugh has shown great potential for a number of years, with 2018 being somewhat of a breakthrough year for the Glaswegian. He reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open Juniors in January and following his result in Tunisia, will break into the world’s top 1000 in the senior rankings next week.

With confidence a vital component in any elite athlete’s armoury, McHugh’s is rising exponentially and the teenager goes into this week with the belief that he has the ability to spring a few surprises.

“I feel like I can beat anyone if I play well,” he said.

“I just need to focus on myself rather than thinking about the result. It’s not easy and you can get caught up in winning – which is the main thing – but you have to focus on what’s going to help you win. It’s hard but that’s important.”

McHugh is on the midst of making the notoriously tricky transition from the junior ranks to the senior and opportunities such as the one this week to play in an ATP Challenger tournament are invaluable.

The first step to making the progression successfully is recognising what needs to be done to make the step up, the second is actually doing it. McHugh believes he has successfully negotiated the first part of the equation, and he is continuing to work on the second.

“The big difference between junior and senior is less errors,” he explained.

“In juniors, you can get away with being really good, making a few errors and then being good again whereas in seniors, I need to try to maintain my level. That will come with experience but what’s good is that I recognise it myself now rather than getting burned loads of times.

“It’s about getting the balance right – I wouldn’t want to play too safe either so if I keep practicing, eventually it will come.”

As one of the brightest Scottish tennis prospects, added to the fact that he has been signed by Andy Murray’s management company, there is a considerable degree of expectation upon McHugh’s shoulders. But he is taking the pressure in his stride and is refreshingly positive about how to deal with the expectations.

“I enjoy it – it’s great that I’m getting this kind of support and I just try to use it to improve as quickly as possible,” he said.

“I’m going to just keep working hard and I’m not thinking about too much else. Obviously I want to do well and sometimes I will put pressure on myself but I wouldn’t say that’s something that’s holding me back. I’m aware that when I focus on the right things, I do well so I try to stick to that.”

Meanwhile, Dan Evans, who is returning from a drugs ban, was defeated by eighth seed Lucas Miedler from Austria 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.