British tennis is in a woeful state but experts are unsure why the country has not had a champion since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977 for the women and Fred Perry in 1936 for men.
lthough the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) – the governing body for tennis in the UK – receives funding from the government, sponsorship deals and the Wimbledon tournament. But it has not been able to turn the money into talented British players. Tim Henman, former British number one, has claimed that the LTA is not using its funding correctly. For example, the LTA spent nearly £11.5M on staff wages last year. It also spent a significant portion of its budget on promoting tournaments and supporting the current crop of players. Henman has said he would prefer to see more money being spent on the next generation of players. As the UK currently has little else besides Murray, he would like to see majority of funding focussed on 10-12 year-old tennis players in the hope it would kick-start the next generation.
[quote align=”center” color=”#b64735″]Concentrating on tennis at the grass-roots level could also help the UK regain dominance as a tennis nation, according to Henman and Judy Murray, mother of Andy Murray and captain of the British team at Fed Cup – the women’s international team tennis tournament.[/quote]
Instead of building the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton for £40M, Judy Murray would have rather seen the LTA open 40 smaller £1M centres with the money. This would have made top-level facilities and teaching available to more of the UK. There is no simple solution. Perhaps there is no solution at all. The UK consistently ranks about fifth worldwide in everything from sports to GDP and military strength but UK fans expect triumphs on-par with a top ranked nation, according to Irish comedian, Dara O’Briain. It may be that one great tennis player a generation is simply the best the UK will ever be able to muster.
By Frederick Dawson
