Dan slams state of British tennis
DAN Evans has criticised the state of British tennis and believes Emma Raducanu’s success has papered over the cracks.
There will only be three British players in the singles main draws at the French Open starting tomorrow and, for the first time since 2008, no women.
Of the 10 British players in qualifying, none made the final round, while 2021 US Open champion Raducanu joined Andy Murray in withdrawing having undergone surgery on both her wrists and one ankle.
Speaking ahead of his firstround clash with Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis, Evans said: “They’ve been lucky that they had a grand slam champion and she’s a very good tennis player but the rankings don’t lie, do they?
“Men’s or women’s, the rankings don’t lie. Men’s, not many of us playing qualis, not many main draw. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but there’s way further to go than just the top players. It’s from the bottom up.
“We’re in a habit of sending people to college now. I don’t think that massively helps. It’ll be interesting. I think the grass last year really helped paper over some cracks as well. After the grass, there will be a bit of soul-searching I imagine, after their holidays.”
Evans has been a long-time critic of the domestic set-up and recently hit out at some of his fellow British players for not competing enough and being willing to grind out life on the tour.
A late bloomer after serving a drugs ban and admitting to enjoying the party lifestyle too much, Evans knows well both the pitfalls and what it takes to achieve success.
The world number 24 said: “You’ve got to work hard. I know what it’s like to not work hard and what you get from that and I know what it’s like to work hard and get decent rewards.
“I’m not sitting here saying I know the answers. I have a fair idea of the answers and I would do it very differently to what’s happening now I think. There’s enough people playing junior tennis. We just don’t help them.”
Evans reserved his strongest ire for former Lawn Tennis Association performance director Simon Timson -– now occupying the same role with Manchester City – who was the architect of a strategy that heavily funds a small number of players.
“It’s just heartbreaking that a guy next door to you is getting 70 grand or something, but you’re better than him,” said Evans. “But a guy with these stats is telling you, ‘No, no, he’s better’.
“You can look who has been on PSP (Pro Scholarship Programme, the highest level of support). It’s hardly flourishing reading is it?
“And that’s what I think we need to (do) – get a bigger pool and just pool it all in and get going. It’s simple maths. But Simon Timson, he was the mastermind of it all.”
Evans is an example of what can be achieved with hard work and the right attitude, and he will hope to continue his improvement on clay when he takes on Kokkinakis tomorrow.
The British number two has lost his last three matches but reached the semi-finals of clay tournaments in Marrakech and Barcelona.