Greg Rusedski is the only one of those involved in the BBC team who actually has a clue about what goes on, and so comments from him I listen to when he talks about the players, but Muzza, anyone at the LTA, Sue Barker and co, and now Henman are CLUELESS as to how the system works.

You often hear the story about how Djokovic rose from nowhere and only showed an interest in tennis when some tennis courts where opened across the road from the pizza resturant.... but I've yet to see anyone make the OBVIOUS LINK BETWEEN HAVING A SET OF FREE TENNIS COURTS OPPOSITE HIS HOUSE, AND BEING A WORLD CLASS PLAYER.

Surely it's not rocket-science to think that being able to practice for nothing at all hours may have helped him?

And then we take the British system - earlier today I was playing tennis with my dad on some hard courts, which you have to pay a small fee to use... but we'd much rather have played on the grass courts that lie next to it.

But why couldn't we play on the grass? Because he happens to work full-time and so is unable to get home before 5pm, when they happen to close them down for the evening! So at the time when people are most likely to want to play tennis, the courts aren't actually open (and condition of the court can't be a problem as they look perfect)

And then we have the Exmouth Indoor Tennis Centre - great facilities, but even with a discount, it costs me £15 to hire the courts for an hour.

So how exactly are we supposed to develop tennis players when you have to pay a ridiculous fee in order to play on them? Do you think that someone wanted to get their children into a sport is going to choose tennis, when it's costs that much to let them play? Or are they going to buy them a cheap fair of football boots and send them to a team where they may have to pay £2 for a 2 hour session?

And then there are the amount of courts in the country - or I should say the lack of courts.

Where I live, there is a town of 17,000 people, supported by a village of 2,000 people... so for those 19,000 people there are... 7 hard courts, and 4 grass courts, but 2 of those belong to a private club (that only has a ladies doubles team!) and 2 aren't open at a time when anyone can use them!

It's all a question of money, and if you don't have it, then you simply won't succeed. All the best juniors I know at Exmouth happen to have 1 thing in common, that being they belong to rich families.

The best junior? His dad owns the biggest nightclub in the town and is a millionaire.

The next best? Same thing, the family has a lot of money.

And where do they go school? Oh yeah, private schools.

And that's fine for them, but I can't recall a single player from a poor background actually being that good, or staying for long enough to become good because they cannot afford to play tennis.

Transfer that to the senior level, and then you have a real problem.

Let's take an example of the Belarussian futures this week - a 15K event with a cut of 1134, which sounds like a perfect event to play in given that it's weak and a good chance of points. It's costs £249 to fly there and back, plus I'd imagine at least £25 a night accomodation, plus the £15 qualifying sign in, plus £30 doubles entry, plus meals, plus expenses.... and it soons adds up to £400/500/600 for the trip.

Do that 3 or 4 times a year, maybe without much success and you're looking at £2,000/3,000 of expenses paid out.... now how are you supposed to pay for that as a player if you haven't got any money to get to these locations in the first place?

You can't play in this country because there aren't any futures events to play in, so you have to go into debt to play abroad, ONLY TO BE CRITICISED FOR NOT USING THE NTC!!!

Without funding, it's impossible to make a decent living as a player, unless you are successful.

And yet... the LTA doesn't seem to recognise this fact, and instead spend all their money on a tennis centre, which is lovely, but neglect the fact that it will only be used by the juniors as the pro's are always abroad.

The LTA is clueless, we all know that, but when the likes of Henman and Murray say things like this, then it just makes you wonder what planet they are on. They've played at Futures events... surely at some point they must have picked up a vibe from someone that they are struggling for money.

And unless it becomes a lot cheaper and there are more tennis courts to use in this country, you'll never get enough players picking up a racquet, and unless they do so, you aren't going to get the talent coming through

Brilliant analysis, good to see it backed up with so many concrete examples.

It's funny what you say about Greg being a bit more in touch - I haven't been watching tennis on TV very much this week, but I've noticed that most of AM.com and Centre Court seem to think Greg is the worst commentator on TV apart, of course, from Andrew "my mirror is my best friend" Castle.

Well put Foreverdelayed, that was what I was trying to say but I was only repeating what I have learned, whereas you are expressing personal experience. Unfortunately no one will ever listen - they will continue to build their own little empire at Roehampton and say "We have the best facilities and the best coaches in the world" but what good is that to any 'undiscovered natural talent?
Perhaps Roger Draper should try traveling economy on a restricted budget and living in a £25/night room (Rather cheaper than I expected!) and finding a 'sportsmans meal' on a couple of quid a day, you have to be pretty dedicated to persevere with that.
I know that locally the tennis centre and gym was closed last year although a new one is being built several miles out of town, immediately restricting the number and type of players able to get there.

steven wrote:

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Brilliant analysis, good to see it backed up with so many concrete examples.

It's funny what you say about Greg being a bit more in touch - I haven't been watching tennis on TV very much this week, but I've noticed that most of AM.com and Centre Court seem to think Greg is the worst commentator on TV apart, of course, from Andrew "my mirror is my best friend" Castle.

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There's a difference between being in touch with the game as being able to commentate on it though.

Rusedski's still learning how to be an effective commentator, but does give some insight into why players do certain things on the court.

To be honest, I didn't think Castle had a bad week at Queens, and he was certainly better than he has been in the past, so it's good to see some improvement in the commentary