Ever since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon 34 years ago these are the countries that have all had a winner of a Grand Slam in either the men's or women's game: Switzerland Italy Spain Russia Serbia Belgium Argentina USA Brazil France Germany Croatia Austria Yugoslavia Ecuador Sweden Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic Romania Australia Netherlands South Africa ...and now after today... China That's 22 countries that have won since the UK had a winner and the UK holds one of, if not the most prestigious of all the majors where 19 of those countries don't have that luxury. It's utterly disgraceful and one of the most unflattering statistics a country has had at a sport. Why aren't heads rolling?
Monkey, I am an English tennis coach who has made a living in Florida and the Caribbean for the last 27 years and I could not agree with you more. We have absolutely no excuses whatever. Almost every town has indoor courts and great facilities so what is the problem? The answer is POOR COACHING. Simple as that. My own juniors in Florida have won US Games gold medals, a Florida State championship, and lucrative college schollarships. I have done all that working as a single coach at small facilities and competing against the famous academies like Nick Bollettieri. I did bring one English junior to Florida and, after working with him for a few years he started destroying Florida's best boys. I would love to work with other ambitious English juniors because, like you, I think it is time for Britain to produce a champion. By the way, I think Andy Murray has all the weapons to win a Slam but needs to improve tactically.
Well tennishusa it's nice to see we have successful coaches out there like yourself albeit a shame that you are plying your trade overseas and not in the country that needs it most. May I ask why you decided to move over there? Was it work related? I do think that as well as poor coaching the sport may be seen as too elitist in this country so perhaps there needs to be more encouragement to get young kids playing the sport to begin with. And that I feel is where the LTA come into it with a responsibility to get those kids of all backgrounds interested. Anyway, keep up the good work, and here's hoping more English juniors head your way. And yes, with the right head screwed on Murray has a GS in him.
The commentator on Murray's match remarked that if he stopped communicating with his people watching off court during the matches he might find the ten-percent he's lacking to win a Slam, the distraction is enough to make a difference.
Despite Wimbledon, the tennis centres, Murray etc for a variety of reasons it's minority sport. You'll always struggle to produce elite sportsmen in minority sports.
Monkey - It was the desire to travel and see the world that led me to work in the USA, Puerto Rico, Antigua and Anguilla. However, if the right offer came along I would consider returning to the UK. Legend Killer - I think it is too simplistic to blame our lack of success on tennis being a minority sport. It is also very much a minority sport in Sweden (Borg & Willander), Germany (Becker & Graff), Holland (Krajicek) Austria (Muster), Spain ( Nadal & Sanchez Vicario), Belgium (Henin & Clijsters). Even in the USA (Connors, McEnroe, Sampras, Courrier, Agassi, Chang, Evert, Davenport, Venus & Serena) tennis falls way behind American football, basketball, baseball and even soccer in the pecking order. I am not including any of the former comunist countries where their players have received massive government support. Athletics is a very tough individual, minority sport which has had less money spent on it than tennis has received from the LTA, yet we have a long history of success going back to the days of Ovett, Coe and Thompson. So, why can't we do it in tennis? I sincerely believe that it is down to poor coaching. Sad but true.
tennisusa I still think the main reason is that it's a monority sport but you make a good point about the coaching, illustrated perfectly by Jamie and Andy Murray:- "At the age of 11, Jamie finished runner up in the boys under 12 category at the prestigious Junior Orange bowl. Murray was the junior world #2 when he was about 13 years old and was selected to be educated at The Leys School while being coached by national coaches. Jamie's younger brother Andy said of this experience that the LTA 'ruined' him when he went to Cambridge." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_murray I think this forced the Murray family into the descision to pack Andy off to Spain.
I think there is a lack of good coaches. But a lot of our players now get the benefit of funding ie lottery etc. I think it really comes down to how bad they want to get to the top. most young players are not prepared to live and breathe tennis to get to the top.We have the same problem with our footballers you cannot go out clubbing 3 or 4 nights a week and get to the top.
