British tennis must grow grass-roots to become a big-hitter
Edmund was last hope in either singles draw Game suffering after five years of cost-cutting
On Saturday evening, Kyle Edmund received a lesson in grass-court tennis from three-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic. Ever philosophical, Edmund said afterwards that he would use his 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 defeat as a model for what he needs to do better. We can only hope British tennis follows suit. Because, for the first time since 2007 – and only the third time in 25 years – we have no singles players in the second week of Wimbledon.
Everyone knew it was coming. For the past decade, Andy Murray has borne his burden with remarkable grace. His critics complain about the chuntering and moodiness, but how would any of us cope with carrying an entire national sport on our back?
Edmund has all this to look forward to: the stress of going into Wimbledon as Britain’s only realistic hope, on the men’s side at least. But what are our administrators doing to help?
Precious little, some might say. Over the past five years, the Lawn Tennis Association has slashed its investment in performance tennis. In 2014, Bob Brett – an excellent coach with no management experience – closed the national network of High Performance Centres and three-quarters of Britain’s Futures tournaments.
Things did not improve at the end of Brett’s haphazard 11-month tenure. Incredibly, the LTA muddled on without a discernible performance strategy for four years. We are talking about a period in which Murray was lifting the Davis Cup almost singlehanded and becoming the first British world No1. Talk about an opportunity missed.
It was only last month that the LTA unveiled its long-awaited plan, which involves two new “national academies”, in Loughborough and Stirling, due to open next year.
This ‘‘Performance Pathway’’ model, signed off by Scott Lloyd, who took over as the LTA’S chief executive in January, is the brainchild of performance director Simon Timson, who has previously set up development pathways in bobsleigh and cricket. Timson divides opinion. He boasts a heavyweight CV, but the counterargument
It seems odd that Wimbledon does not give more thought to how to develop players
is that he is not a tennis man and struggles to understand the sport’s unique ecology.
The Performance Pathway is to be managed by Ian Yates, a Timson associate with experience in bobsleigh, taekwondo and cycling, while the sports-science end will be run by former rugby man Dan Lewindon.
Timson is evangelical about his model. “We have plenty of tennis IQ in the building already,” he told the Telegraph. “If you look at what’s happening in the England football team, they’re four years into a plan that we’re in the first year of, which combines specialist expertise with wider sporting knowledge.
“We’re trying to do something similar, and we have a lot of good
Hard lesson: Briton Kyle Edmund was soundly beaten by Novak Djokovic
people involved, like Tim Henman, Sam Smith and Jamie Delgado.”
In a first-person piece in The Sunday Telegraph, Lloyd wrote that “the tennis community is fractured”. He hopes the new blueprint will be a rallying point. First, though, Lloyd needs to address the widespread perception that the LTA performance staff spend too much time at their elegant Roehampton offices and too little engaging with the shires.
In the background, meanwhile, the All England Club do their best to rise above the messy and difficult business of running the national sport. The “Road to Wimbledon” offers an opportunity for Under-14s to compete in an annual finals week on the famous grass courts, but no equivalent exists for adult club players. Would a similar deal not boost the appeal of the national leagues and thus the number of entrants?
It seems odd that Wimbledon does not spend more time thinking about the challenges of developing British players. The club clearly believe theirs is an international tournament, and can survive independent of local talent. But how much free advertising have the likes of Henman and Murray brought to the event?
Not everything is gloomy. Britain had a promising group of five women at SW19 this year, while the doubles rankings show seven men in the top 100. Perhaps in a year Murray will be back. Place him alongside Edmund – plus the likes of Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans – and the picture looks significantly less bleak.
But the junior ranks are not flush with prospects and clubs report a dearth of interest. To achieve Timson’s aspirations – a deep playing pool to match the continental giants – our national tennis culture will have to be rebuilt from the grass-roots up.