Quote Originally Posted by KerrAvon View Post
I'm with Stovic on this.

There is vaguely kind of a point in Grist's posts, however, which is that there is something badly wrong with British tennis - it's a wealthy sport in a wealthy country but cannot produce much home grown talent (although Radacanu's tennis abilty is home grown).

Somebody needs to ask why the LTA fails to deliver. My suspicion is because it only opens it's doors to a very narrow section of society.
'Something badly wrong with British tennis' is just not accurate. It certainly isn't a priviledged sport for the wealthy by any means. I'm not asking you this in a snarky way but do you actually watch much tennis?

Current top 10 in the world rankings. Women.

1. Barty - Australia
2. Sabalenka - Belarus
3. Osaka - Japan
4. Pliskova - Czechia
5. Svitolina - Ukraine
6. Kenin - USA
7. Andreescu - Canada
8. Swiatek - Poland
9. Krejckova - Czechia
10. Muguruza - Spain

1 country with more than 1 player in the top 10 currently, Czechia. Look how diverse that list is in terms of spanning the globe. You are talking about the best of the best. The absolute elite of the game. To say the LTA is not producing much talent is not a fair assessment, everywhere is producing. Tennis is not like team sports where countries dominate with all the best players, it doesn't happen like that.

We currently have 5 female players in the top 200. So 1 in 40 of the best 200 players in the world is British. What number would you like that to be for our output to be considered a success? 1 in 10? 1 in 5? Good luck.

We have a British player in the semi final of the US Open, at 18! The slams in the women's side of the game have gone all over the place in recent years. Minus Serena a few years ago nobody dominates. Is every country failing? I don't think so. The competition is so even and deep now. We have great prospects coming up, to go with established players on the tour.

There are issues with a lack of facilities in some places but talent still gets spotted and nurtured. Try lobbying your local council for more tennis courts if you want to see more people playing the game and improving our chances. Oh and the climate here doesn't help much.