by Stewart Fisher , The Herald

The 24-year-old from Broxburn had given up the sport completely and was working for Scottish Power as recently as 12 months ago, so he isn't going to let yesterday's first-round defeat in the men's doubles put the lights out on his Wimbledon dream, no matter how demoralising the circumstances.

Demoralising they certainly were. The Scot and Ken Skupski, his partner, were two points from a place in the second round - and possibly a chance to reprise their recent defeat over the Bryan brothers - when they led 5-2 in a thirdset tie-break, only to go down 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Johan Brunstrom and Julien Rojer on Court 9. The match was so close its first break of serve did not arrive until the fourth set.

Yet Fleming, undaunted, bounded into the interview room afterwards to say his long-term goal remained on course: to play in both the singles and doubles draws as SW19 without the need for a wild card. This year, his hopes of qualifying for the men's singles ended when he prioritised the chance to enter the doubles main draw at Eastbourne.

"It has been a period where doubles has hit the headlines for me but I will go on from here and still be working hard on my singles, " Fleming said.

"Two hundred and fifty was the cut-off for a singles wildcard and a goal of mine is to be playing main draw challengers and ATPs. That would mean being 250 in the world so, if that is the case, it would be great to play singles here. But I guess my long-term goal is to be able to play here without the need of wild cards in doubles or singles. I just need to go away and work to that. I need to be here on my own merit which is going to take a lot of time and hard work. But I am going to put it in."

Short-term goals include the mixed doubles event a SW19, gaining qualification to the US Open, and persuading John Lloyd that, with Fleming having played in the recent Davis Cup tie at Braehead, both he and his partner should take part against Poland in Skupski's home town of Liverpool in September.

Jamie and Andy Murray, and doubles specialist Ross Hutchins will also come into contention for Lloyd's side. "I have done it before and would love to play for Britain again, " Fleming said.

"I know that, if Ken got involved in Liverpool, he would love it."

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