Murray annoyed with LTA for failing to capitalise on his success with tennis participation dropping in Britain
ANDY MURRAY has claimed it is “madness” that British tennis has not exploited his success to inspire the next generation of champions.
The first British man to win Wimbledon for 77 years could have played his last match after losing in the first round of the Australian Open to Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.
But the Scot, who also won two Olympic golds and led Great Britain to Davis Cup victory, believes the Lawn Tennis Association has missed a prime chance to promote the sport.
“Does it annoy me? Yeah,” he said. “Maybe it’s something I should have given more thought to while I was playing but I never felt that was my job to do that.
“It is a bit disappointing. I don’t understand how in the last eight to 10 years that participation is dropping, I don’t get it.”
Murray and his family have been constant critics of the LTA and the former world No.1 said he will be leaving tennis without his golden years being maximised to fund stars of the future at grassroots level, especially in Scotland.
“We’ve obviously got a few players here, Kyle, Cam Norrie, Dan Evans, Harriet Dart, Jo, Heather, Katie Boulter, so there are quite a few players coming through that have potential to go on and do better but obviously you are talking about the highend of the game,” he said.
“But I think the thing that is more concerning, from my understanding, is that participation is dropping.
“I know in Scotland that there have not been many indoor courts built in the last 10 years. That seems madness. I don’t understand why that is.
“You need to get kids playing, you need to have the facilities that allow them to do that and I am not sure Britain has really capitalised on the last seven or eight years of success that we’ve had. I’m not sure how much we’ve done there.”
Murray’s mum, Judy, revealed her heartache at watching him suffer with hip pain, but hinted: “He’s not quite ready to quit yet.”
The former Fed Cup night was mind over body, for sure.
“I think it’s very hard as a parent to watch your kids struggling with anything, especially if they are physically hurting. Also to know that there isn’t really anything you can do to help them, that’s really hard. “I think we could see from last night how much he’s still got to give and how much he loves it and has always loved what he does. So I don’t know what he’ll do next.
“He probably doesn’t know yet. He can take his time, there’s no rush to make any decisions. It all needs to be looked at and researched and weighed up.
“But whatever he decides, I’ll be right behind him because quality of life, of course, is massive and he’s got two little kids.
“He must enjoy life in the long term but you just get the sense that there’s something else in him, that he’s not quite ready to quit yet so we’ll see.” AMID all the tributes paid to Andy Murray over the last few days – from Roger Federer to the All England Club – there has been a notable exception. The Lawn Tennis Association has been strangely quiet and its website’s lead item yesterday was still the Fed Cup tie in Bath next month and not a mention of the imminent retirement of the country’s greatest player.
captain said she reflected on both her boys’ “long journey” from Dunblane to Grand Slam winners as Andy possibly ended his career here on Monday night.
“I’m just so proud of what he did out there given the discomfort that he’s in,” she said. “The mind is a powerful thing and last