Players from other countries also have other options. Most of them are middle class. It is a left-wing myth that lots of top foreign players are hungry because they are working class and have no other options, while our kids are spoilt because they are all from rich families and don't need to work. This is 2010, and the middle class generally works harder than the "working" class in the UK and most other countries.

Going into tennis to make money is potty, whoever you are. The chances of making it are so slim that you have to have a passion for the game to succeed. The UK doesn't produce many tennis players because it doesn't have a strong competitive club tennis culture, and tennis is way down the list of popular sports. The only reason this issue even gets an airing is the existence of Wimbledon, without which it would be no more of a mystery why we don't produce top tennis players than it is that we don't produce top basketball players.

That said, the LTA does seem to be doing a good job with the juniors at the moment. Sarah Borwell needs to change her view of what a successful pro tennis career means. I still remember vividly her indifference to a defeat by Laura Robson when Robson was fourteen.