British Tennis

Every year at this time we get the same old tired discussions of why don't the Brits do very well at Wimbledon, and I hear the LTA saying the same thing, which is usually that they have a plan and more talent will come through. I think we have to accept a few basic premises. To make it to the top of any sport you need a combination of, raw talent, single minded determination to succeed, a supportive infrastructure around you, and often luck as you need to be spotted by someone who can recognise your talent. Let me take each element. Raw Talent: It doesn't matter how much money the LTA or government throw at a tennis, if the raw talent doesn't exist you're not going to create it. Determination. These days there are many distractions for kids, so only the very focused are going to want to play tennis at the level required. But in addition, if you compare tennis to say, football, football has a much more glamorous profile so kids are far more likely to want to be footballers than tennis players. There's also the numbers game. There are far more opportunities to make a living from being a professional footballer that there are a professional tennis player so this may discourage some. Tennis is also less accessible as kids grow up. You can play football anywhere, you just need a ball. To play tennis you need facilities, and these are few and far between, so the opportunity for a casual game of tennis are fewer. Infrastructure. If we want to make tennis one of our top sport sports, it has to be played in schools in the same way other sports are. Many schools don't offer tennis, and those that do don't play enough competitive tennis for the talent scouts to come and see what is out there. Assuming you are lucky enough to go to a tennis playing school, and you are then lucky enough to be spotted, are there enough local programs of training and sponsorship to nurture that young precocious talent? So I think when you layer all this together with a sprinkling of fair fortune of fowl, it seems like however much money you throw at tennis you are not going to start producing Wimbledon champions. So, it's easy to be critical, but how to you change this situation? Well, if you look at sports that are successful, they have a number of things in common. They have a high public profile, they are played at schools, they have large commercial funding, and are ingrained into the British culture. If tennis is to be a sport that churns out British winners consistently it needs to look to the examples of other sports. It needs to be played more at schools, it needs to have a higher profile that just the 2 weeks of Wimbledon, and here's the controversial bit. It needs commercial organisations to be involved. Much as I hate the over commercialisation of football, you can't knock the success it has bought to the Premier League. There's also a bit of a oxymoron here too, tennis is a successful and popular sport in the UK, but the UK rarely produces top players. Could we drive up the commercial nature of tennis by diverting the players away from the level 3 tournaments to partaking in some form of team event, with franchised regional teams? Mmmm, ponder that thought over your strawberries and cream!