Are we being served?

Mary Kate O’Riley investigates what it will take for British tennis to produce a crop of championship winners

It’s that time of year again: Wimbledon is back. Yet, while Britain plays host to what is widely deemed the most popular tennis event in the world, we seem unable to produce an equally popular or successful, crop of British players. Sure, we beat Israel in the Davis Cup in March, no mean feat given the strength of the Israeli team. And there are promising youngsters coming through the ranks, but it’s not enough to put us on the world tennis map.

Of course, how we’re doing in the global tennis stakes depends on who you talk to, with comments ranging from “improved a lot” to “we’re moving in the right direction” to “nothing has changed much over the last 20 years”.

Take John Crowther, chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), who says: “British tennis has always thrived in a recreational sense, but not in a competitive sense. We’ve underperformed and we need to do something to regenerate the game.”

But former British Davis Cup captain Paul Hutchins believes the presence of a British Wimbledon winner would do little to improve the UK’s overall output of world-ranking players. “One of the interesting things about Tim Henman is that he hasn’t made any difference to the standards of British tennis over the last 10 years. OK, he hasn’t actually won but I was around when Virginia Wade won the women’s final. That didn’t make a difference either.” Hutchins is supportive of what is being done to boost tennis, particularly by the LTA, but believes it remains a fairly small sport. He continues: “Good things are happening, but you can take a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.”

Over the past few years, the LTA has focused its efforts, reducing more than 50 initiatives to three main objectives. Its aims are to attract and keep more juniors learning the game in a fun environment, to change the culture among clubs and identify and develop the most talented players. Last year the LTA invested £15m in clubs and grassroots programmes, while £5.2m was spent on facilities for the best players.

But Hutchins is concerned about the amount of talent. He explains: “I’m tournament director for both the national junior club league, which comprises 2,750 teams, and the “Road to Wimbledon” programme, which involves 800 clubs and 14,000 kids. It sounds alot, but compared to France or Germany, where hundreds of thousands of children are playing the game, our market is much smaller,” he says.

He refers to an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Futures tournament that took place in the spring in Bath. “There was a Frenchman, Jean-Michel Pequery, playing at Bath who was ranked 212 on the ATP ranking, and he’s ranked 31 in France. Yet if he was British he’d be number four. That gives you an idea of the difference in depth between our two countries.” Elena Baltacha, British women’s number one and the woman with the fastest serve in the women’s game, agrees: “We’re moving forward, but slowly. There are lots of LTA schemes but we still don’t have a crop of really good players, compared to other countries. We need more volume. Standards will only go up if the volume of players goes up.”

Arvind Parmar, currently ranked fourth in Britain and 205 in the world, is more optimistic, but still feels we could learn from our Continental neighbours. He explains: “I’ve noticed more kids picking up a racket and playing, and there are more programmes in place to encourage them. But I really like the way the French run their clubs—there’s a great competitive spirit with tournaments and the like.”

Sue Mappin, director of the Cliff Richard Tennis Foundation (CRTF) and ex-player (she competed in all the Grand Slams until her retirement in 1978), says: “The LTA is desperate for a men’s Wimbledon champion, but it needs to concentrate less on the performance level and more on the grassroots level. What’s the point in paying for the likes of John McEnroe or Boris Becker to promote the sport when it’s the base tournament level that needs the cash.”

Mappin would like to keep things local: “The CRTF introduces kids to tennis through its ‘tennis trail’ system, and we try and fund the promising ones. There are lots of children with ability and talent, but at some point they have to start travelling and spending money. In France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, they can play, be coached and developed in their own backyard.” So what of the coaches working in those backyards? Dave Houseman is head coach of Gravesham LTC, which won an LTA award for the fastest-growing club in Kent in April 2005. “Membership has increased by more than 150 per cent over the last three years because there’s a good coaching set-up, targeted promotion and a feel-good factor,”  says Houseman. He is convinced that national success lies with the clubs, but feels they need to adopt a different approach: “Tennis clubs are all too often seen as middle class and rather aloof. Gravesham has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere—a good bar helps—but it also has a strong coaching programme and a lot of junior and senior participation. That’s why it works,” he says.

Houseman used to work in the City and admits that having a business background helped him develop the club. He questions whether the traditional route taken by many coaches is good for the game. “There are many that try their hand at competitive tennis, and when they don’t make it, they move into coaching,” he says. “But I’m not sure that’s the right route—a club needs a well-rounded coach who can drum up enthusiasm and support. You need to be able to play the game well, but you need also real drive and commitment.”

Paul Barton thinks the tennis should reach beyond the club network. He heads up online tennis network London Tennis (www.londontennis.co.uk) which lists leagues, ladders, coaches and potential partners along with places to play throughout London, including public courts. “We fill a gap,” he says. “Not even the LTA tells you where you can play locally that isn’t a private tennis club.”

Barton suggests another way to generate more interest is through television: “Around 10 million people a day watch Wimbledon, so why not have more terrestrial TV tennis,” he asks. “Perhaps the BBC could do a deal with Sky, pay for its previous week’s tennis footage, and run it on Saturday morning, when kids are watching.” But is getting kids watching it on TV enough? The man in charge of training British under-14s at national level, Carl Maes, is unsure: “Tennis is a long way off being a democratic sport because once you get good, it gets very expensive, but even if you’re not so good, it’s expensive.” Anne Keovathong, the British women’s number four, agrees: “The facilities are there, but people need cheaper access to indoor courts.”

At the LTA, Crowther admits that making tennis an all year-round sport would do a lot to boost the game. But to do that we need a lot more indoor courts. There are currently 1,300 indoor tennis courts in this country. Again, this pales in comparison with France. It would cost about £1.2bn to build the 5,000 new indoor courts required to match France, with its local government-funded tennis infrastructure. But for Crowther, there’s also the thorny issue of planning permission. “It’s a lottery,” he explains. “If a local authority has sport on its agenda, we might get permission. If it doesn’t, we won’t.”

The cost of nurturing a young tennis star is often what puts parents off. Your child may have as much skill with a racquet as Wayne Rooney has at his feet, but that’s where comparisons end. In tennis the onus is on the individual, or the parents. According to Mappin, it can cost upwards of £10,000 a year for a child to play full-time junior tennis.

Baltacha elaborates: “My mum spent around £20,000 on me when I was between 12 and 14. I got help from the LTA with travel and coaching but you still need input from elsewhere—it’s tough.” Crowther admits that LTA funds for individuals are limited. But he questions whether cash handouts are the right approach: “It takes a lot of sacrifice and I know of quite a few second and third mortgages. But you need to make sure the player is hungry. If they get all their funding on a plate, will it make them less hungry?

“This game is not just about being gifted, it’s about having real hard commitment,” he adds. For once, players and administrators agree. As Keovathong says: “You need real dedication to make it as a tennis player, and maybe there’s a cultural attitude missing in this country. Anyone can hit a great forehand or backhand, but what about developing their mental approach to the game?” Baltacha concurs: “You should be waking up every morning and looking forward to getting better and better.”