LTA academies’ intake proves top coaching is available to all

The first intake of the Lawn Tennis Association’s shiny new national academies will feature three black, Asian and minority ethnic teenagers and one child who is the daughter of a London single mother, as tennis tries to break out of its traditional middle-class image.

The Daily Telegraph has obtained the list of 15 students, aged 12-16, who will start training when the new school year begins. Seven will be based at Stirling University and eight at Loughborough University, on a package of coaching, sports science and overseas travel that has been estimated to come to at least £90,000 per annum, yet is charged at only £5,000 to the parents.

“The LTA is talking a lot about making the game relevant and accessible to a broader church of people, and this group represents it,” Simon Timson, the performance director, said. “When you put Paul Jubb [the Hull teenager who made his Wimbledon main-draw debut last week] and his story on top of it, hopefully we are starting to show that you don’t need to have a truckload of cash to make it.

“Twenty per cent of this group are BAME – Hephzibah Oluwadare, Given Roach and Ranah Stoiber. For Ranah’s development to this stage, we have to credit Stephen Marks [the head of French Connection, who supports the tennis setup at Dukes Meadows in Chiswick, west London]. He put a lot of support in because she is one of four siblings with a single mother.”

The leading 16-year-old boys declined to apply for the LTA’S new programmes, with the lack of any track record for the academies a factor in their collective decision. But Timson has previously set up development pathways in both skeleton bobsleigh and cricket, and insists that he can succeed where his predecessors failed. “Doing nothing was not an option,” he said.

“Everyone’s been talking about the number of opportunities given to juniors with wild cards here and only six got through to the second round. There were no British juniors at the French Open. The inaction of the past has led us to where we are now. That has got to change.”

The Stirling academy’s head coach will be Brazil’s Leo Azevedo, who will have only four indoor courts when the programme starts on Aug 17, but will have access to another four when a £20million development is completed next year.

Azevedo admitted that “the ideal situation is that you play outdoors, with more clay”. But he explained there were three European red-clay courts at Bridge of Allan, which is only a few minutes away, to make use of when the weather is good.

“Also, we go abroad a lot,” Azevedo added. “I have good relations with Juan Carlos Ferrero [the former French Open champion who runs an academy near Madrid], and with Francis Roig [Rafael Nadal’s coach, whose academy is in Barcelona].”

Loughborough’s head coach will be Nick Cavaday, who formerly coached the Slovenian-turnedbriton-turned-slovenian-again Aljaz Bedene. The schooling here will be provided by Loughborough Amherst School, only a few minutes’ walk from the university’s courts, while Stirling will use the highly rated Dollar Academy.

“The on-court challenges are obvious,” Timson said. “The off-court ones, not so much. But that’s the difference with this initiative. We will have full-time support at both academies, to provide that link between teachers and parents and coaches.

“The idea is to set up a sustainable pipeline, not just for future generations of players but future generations of coaches. We’re going to invest whatever it costs to do that.”