Broady still defiant over LTA dispute
NAOMI BROADY admits she would love to play for Great Britain at the Olympics, but the 28-year-old once branded the bad girl of British tennis will not be budged in her stand-off with the LTA.
The British No3 was banned and had her funding and coaching withdrawn after some risque pictures of her appeared on social media in 2007, and since then she has refused to appear for the Fed Cup team or represent her country in any way.
Broady, who faces defending champion Garbine Muguruza on Centre Court today, said: “If it were as simple as representing my country, I would love to play for Great Britain in the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. But as long as it is so intertwined with the LTA, it is not going to happen.
“It is a shame it is so intertwined, and it is a shame they made the ruling that you can’t play the Olympics if you can’t play Fed Cup as well. As long as it is like that, I don’t think much is going to change.”
Broady has explained her stance to Fed Cup captain Anne Keothavong, but believes she is still being punished with a lack of wild cards during the grass-court season prior to Wimbledon.
The world No70 said: “This year, rightly or wrongly, I have not received any wild cards across the grass.
“Maybe that is their way of showing if I don’t play Fed Cup I am not going to receive anything from them.
“So much has gone on that so many people don’t know about. And I am not going to sit here and point fingers and say, ‘They did this and they did that’.
“There is a lot more to the story than everyone knows. And it is frustrating to have people that don’t know what happened judge the situation. A lot of people who were involved in the situation no longer work at the LTA, but some people still do. “I have got a wild card for Wimbledon, but there is a difference between the LTA and British tennis. That is where I am extremely lucky that the All England Club does support and have belief in my tennis.
“I owe so much of my career to them. Without the wild cards I have had, I would definitely have stopped playing tennis by now and not been able to afford it. My best ranking came from being able to invest in my tennis a few years ago after getting a wild card here.”
The £39,000 Broady will bank if she loses to Muguruza today will enable her to finance her tennis and a coach for the next year.
Also today, British No1 Jo Konta meets Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia, Gabriella Taylor takes on former finalist Eugenie Bouchard, Heather Watson meets Kirsten Flipkens, Katy Dunne takes on 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko, and Katie Boulter plays Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede Royg.