thegingerlightbulb wrote:

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Am I being too harsh in saying it looks like we have a lack of talent coming up behind the 1990 generation. We barely have anyone inside the top 100 juniors for boys and that doesn't look like changing anytime soon. Surely this is where Draper should be judged after 5 or so years in charge now.

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Roger Draper was pointing last Wimbledon to the number of boys in the top 100 as evidence of how the policy of concentrating more on bringing juniors through was starting to show dividends (a rather unwise comment in my view, as it should have been obvious that this year was not going to be anywhere near as successful - but I imagine the junior game, other than Laura/Heather, is below the radar of most journalists to check).

It is likely there will be a group of the 1992 boys inside the top 100 by the start of next year, when all the 1991's drop off the rankings, though that is very late in the junior cycle to give encouragement that they will make much of an impact in the men's game. However this is what Greg Rusedski had to say recently:

"From working with some of our most talented teenagers for the LTA, I know British tennis can have a really bright future.

But the challenge is to bring this promise through into the professional game in the years to come.

I am really enjoying putting something back into the game with the next generation of potential stars and we are making progress. At under -14 level we have nine players in the top 50 in Europe and four in the top ten.

Laura Robson is the best known teenager after winning the Wimbledon Girls' Singles and becoming world junior No.1. And we have 16 and 17-year-old players - like Ashley Hewitt, James Marsalek, Jack Carpenter, Richard Gabb, George Morgan and Oliver Golding - who have already won their first ATP points. The aim is to have them come through together so they can compete and practise as a group.

We don't want to be relying on one player to represent British tennis, piling the pressure on one individual. Nick Bollettieri once produced a group including Jim Courier, Andre Agassi and Dave Wheaton and they all reached the world's top 30. There are a lot of people at the LTA working very hard to achieve this."

The theory of producing a group competing with each other is sound, though trying to compare with Agassi et al is stretching credulity.