TRIO’S PROGRESS SAVES FACE FOR LTA CHIEFS
YOU could almost hear the sigh of relief emanating from Roehampton when the Wimbledon draws came out last week for the British players, offering a series of winnable matches for the 10-strong home contingent. The result — and credit to the individuals concerned getting this far — is that three British singles players will line up in the third round today, with a realistic chance of two of them making the second week in singles. The blushes of the Lawn Tennis Association have already been saved at the time of most scrutiny by, in particular, Dan Evans, Jo Konta and Harriet Dart. They have ensured the dreaded opening rounds wipeout has not occurred. It also helps that Andy Murray’s presence, and all the machinations associated with it, has raised interest in the doubles events to unprecedented levels. Yet it has been a difficult year for British tennis, punctuated by gaffes usually involving the Murrays — or the lack of mention of them — and the problems will remain once Wimbledon has come and gone. At times it looks like the sport is being run as an offshoot of David Lloyd Leisure. As Sportsmail revealed last week, LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd is on the leisure giant’s board and being paid a salary by them in a glaring conflict of interest, taking place right under Wimbledon’s nose. Hopefully there will be some encouraging performances on the grass by Britain’s juniors in the coming week. It was, however, the subject of much less attention that no GB youngsters made it into the draw for equivalent event at the French Open a few weeks ago. The highlights of this year have been the resurgence of Konta and the comeback of Evans, but the British rankings are still not a pretty sight, especially with Kyle Edmund struggling. There are three GB men and one woman in the singles top 100, two of whom learned a large chunk of their tennis outside the UK. All things being equal there ought to be at least one British representative left next week — an improvement on last year when Edmund was the last faller on Saturday afternoon. It may even be that the host nation, plump on the £40million annual handout from the All England Club, will have a similar performance here to France, our neighbouring tennis powerhouse. But appearances can be deceiving.