Did anyone get to see James Marsalek over the weekend? If so, did everything seem to be OK with him, because his results have been really strange.

Last time I saw him was online at Loughborough CH where he seemed to play really well, losing to Donskoy in a match that he could easily have won. In fact I was so impressed with the style of play and positive attitude he showed, that I expected a good 2013.

Next he was announced as one of the Team Aegon Award winners, one of just 16 singles players across men, women, boys and girls, perhaps a debatable selection given some of those left out and the fact that 2013 is year 3 after juniors for James, but clearly he has caught the eye of the coaches and the powers that be with his game, attitude, etc.

As part of Team Aegon he goes out for the La Manga trip under the LTA coaching set-up where clay was the order of the day, and presumably he has free use of the NTC and other LTA support facilities, including their coaches, over the Winter, so you would expect this to really help him versus others out there, and give a big boost.

In January James went out with Kyle, Liam and Luke to play on clay in the US, presumably with all travel, accommodation and other costs funded and with an LTA coach out there at the same time, but didn't manage to get out of qualifying in 3 tournaments in a row (in fact only Kyle managed it, twice). Which for a year 3 pro chosen as one of the LTA's elite group, is really baffling. Then he comes back, the LTA grant him a qualies WC for Wirral, and he loses his first match in straight sets to an unranked Brit. That's 4 tournaments in a row with the same outcome, so it's no longer a blip.

Furthermore, broadening this out a bit, if you look at the LTA Team Aegon list, taking out doubles specialists (5), injured/ill players (4, all the best Rosco), and those who probably shouldn't really be on the list anymore at this point given their ranking (Laura, Heather), it's generally been a very poor start to 2013 with a few OK results here and there, but lots of shockers and not one outstanding tournament performance. Yes I know it's only February, but surely all of this funding, technical and fitness support and specialist coaching (assuming they are being coached correctly) for these elite players should be giving them an edge vs the competition, especially in the early weeks after the Winter training block.

Given this average start to the year, and if you were wanting to find solutions to drive more GB tennis success, you might conclude 1 of 3 things (or a mix of them)

1. The problem is that there remains a massive paucity of talent in GB tennis, so almost all LTA efforts should be focussed on step-changing the volume of talent coming through at grass-roots level, rather than on the elite programme with athletes who may or may not really be "elite". That's my take on the matter - the fact that we continue to only ever have 2s and 3s at junior level each year who compete well at world level backs this up. It's simply not enough.

2. There is enough top GB talent out there, but the LTA cannot find it, or selects the wrong players from an early age. Frankly, there may be some truth in this at the margin, but I doubt it's the route problem.

3. We have the talent, but the elite coaching and training are poor. Well I certainly hope this is wrong, but post La Manga, NTC Winter Break and 3-4 tournaments in to a new year, you might start to wonder! I'd certainly want to know why so many of the top funded players have started so slowly post training block.....hence asking my initial question regarding James

Any views?