Mark Petchey, who resigned from his high-level position at the Lawn Tennis Association last summer to become Andy Murray's coach, yesterday attacked the LTA for the building of their £40 million national tennis centre.
Petchey, formerly the head of men's national training, described the project as "totally misguided" and accused the British game's ruling body of wasting their resources.
He also indicated that he had always been against the national tennis centre, which is scheduled to be completed in Roehampton in south-west London by next year and which John Crowther, the LTA chief executive, has referred to as "the flagship of our performance plan".
Petchey said that the LTA's decision to pursue the construction of the centre was one of the reasons for his growing disillusionment and then his eventual resignation after Wimbledon last July.
"You have to question whether that £40 million is actually addressing the real issues in British tennis. If you think that it does, then you're totally misguided. That would be the simplest way to say it," Petchey said.
"The national tennis centre will not be the reason why Britain produces top-100 players because basically the kids will have to have been produced somewhere else to come to the national tennis centre.
"The LTA haven't been producing them under the current structure, so why, when it hasn't happened before, is it suddenly going to happen when you've got a national tennis centre? Where are the players going to come from to fill it?"
Petchey said that the money would have been better spent on more funding for young players. "I think that it's a bit sad because the money could probably have helped in lots of other areas and there are probably a lot of people out there who are struggling and could have done with it," he said.
"The national tennis centre was one of the reasons why I started to get a bit disillusioned at the LTA. I think that it's a difficult one to defend whichever way you look at it. I haven't been a fan. I wasn't a fan when I worked there at the LTA. But I hope that I'm proved wrong in lots of ways."
Petchey said that it would have made more sense to build a training centre in Spain or Portugal. He pointed to the example of Murray, who left Scotland at the age of 15 to train at a tennis academy in Barcelona, with a portion of the expenses paid for by the LTA.
"I think there's a chunk of land sitting derelict in Spain or Portugal, somewhere that you could stick 50 courts on, which would probably have been half the price.
"And you could say to people that if they wanted to be tennis players, then they should make some sacrifices, get out there and learn to play.
"From my perspective, that's definitely the way we should be going as it's definitely helped Andy's ability to play tennis," Petchey said. He acknowledged that his views would not be "particularly popular" with the LTA.
A spokesman for the LTA defended the facilities in Roehampton, saying that "the state-of-the-art environment" would allow British players "to realise their talent".
The LTA will move their headquarters from Queen's Club to Roehampton, and are hoping to receive as much as £40 million from the sale of Queen's Club.
Petchey's disparaging remarks were the second attack on the LTA from the Murray camp in just over a month. Murray said in late November that the LTA had "ruined" the development of his older brother, Jamie, during his stay at their boarding school-style academy in Cambridge.
Well that's ensured that Petch is not going to get his LTA job back if he ever needs it again !!
I agree with him on the most part, the LTA are using the new tennis centre to paper over the obvious cracks in the system shown the the lack of world class players being produced by Britain over the last 2 decades.
We do have many really talented players ranked between 160-700 who's progress is currently hamstrung by not enough funds so they can't travel abroad to compete in tougher tournaments. Bloomfield and Sherwood are 2 examples and I think Matt Smith may be another. In Sherwood's case this was probably partially his own fault by establishing a bad boy reputation with the LTA in his younger days. However in the last couple of years, he seems to have turned the corner. If you go down the list there are more such players, Andy Banks was a really talented left-hander rated highly by Greg Rusedski and he had reached a career high ranking of around 400. He was really unlucky that this year the LTA changed the Wimby wildcard tournament so only the winner got a wildcard. Therefore although Banks got to the final beating the likes of Arvind Parmar, he didn't get a deserved wildcard. In the summer he was forced to retire because he was too much in debt. Chris Lewis is another such player - bags of talent - he reached the final rd of Wimby qualies a few years back beating Tursunov - Henman's conqueror along the way. And there is also Col Fleming.
Surely that 40 million would have been better spent on helping players like these and our top juniors: Daniel Cox, Naomi Cavaday etc
If the LTA were going to build a new national performance centre, surely they ould have done one for cheaper than 40 million. Or maybe they could take one of their centres around the country and develop it. I don't agree with Petchey that we could have a centre in Spain, surely you to have a performance centre in Britain so most players can access it for training. For players who want to train abroad, haven't we already got the La Manga camp ?
Petchey (right) wants more British players to train abroad like MurrayThe Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has rejected criticism by Andy Murray's coach Mark Petchey that its new £40m training centre is a waste of money.
The Roehampton facility will open early next year and the LTA is confident it will produce the next British stars.
"The national centre is vital in supporting and developing tomorrow's champions," said an LTA spokesperson.
"The centre will ensure we offer the best in facilities, sports services, coaching and medical support."
The national training centre will be a state-of-the-art facility including 22 courts of varying surfaces, a gymnasium and sports science and medical facilities.
The LTA plans to release further news on the centre's progress, which is due to be completed at the end of this year, later this month.
The centre won't be the reason Britain has top-100 players because the kids will have to be produced elsewhere
Andy Murray's coach Mark Petchey
Petchey criticised the centre in Thursday's issues of The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph newspapers, questioning whether it will be value for money.
"I think you have to ask whether that money is well spent," Petchey said.
"Where are the players going to come from to fill it?
"The centre won't be the reason Britain has top-100 players because the kids will have to be produced elsewhere.
"If they are not being produced now then you need to go and address that problem rather than go and build a national training centre when you've only got five good kids who are actually going to use it."
An artist's impression of the lay-out of the new LTA centre
Petchey, who began coaching the British number three permanently in the summer, believes more promising players should be encouraged to follow Murray's example.
The Scottish teenager moved to Barcelona when he was 15 to train at the Sanchez-Casal Academy.
The LTA is believed to have contributed £10,000 towards the cost of Murray's training there and Petchey says that is where the LTA should be investing in the short-term.
"Barcelona was great for Andy and it's one of the reasons why he is where he is," said Petchey.
"It's definitely helped his ability to build points, stay out there and construct a rally. If you looked at the large majority of British players, we wouldn't be strong in that department."
Mark has a point......Noah would have wasted his time if there were no animals to fill it with !!!!
I am ambivalent about the spending of so much money on a single centre in the southeast. It has been financed by the sale of a long lease on Queens Club, and with all the profits of Wimbledon, I don't have a problem with the capital outlay. But what about players who live in the north, or Scotland even? Scotland is now turning out more good juniors than England, and they are doing it with a smaller population and much, much less money. Imagine what they could achieve with some investment into their infrastructure!
Re. Spain, I thought we already owned a few courts out there? Spain does have many advantages: good weather, cheap land, low cost of living, top notch spanish coaches, plenty of young Spaniards to give our boys a good whipping if we get too cocky. The standards over there are much higher, not only in terms of playing talent but in terms dedication as well. I think that just 20% of the money spent in Roehampton could have built a 10 court complex with accomadation for junior players.
Petchey is right when he says that we dont have enough players of the right calibre to make best use of the new facilty. We need better grass roots coaching and facilities as well, but thats another story!
Well, Petchey may slam the LTA (just to tie this into the thread title) but Mark Petchey has - in my view - not covered himself in any glory with his tweets of yesterday.
Petchey moaned and complained about the 'delay' in the men's Indiana Wells final, saying it was unacceptable and that people in Europe has organised their schedule around it and that it would never happen in golf etc. etc.
The reason was because the women's final went on so long (about three hours)
However, as many pointed out, Petchey was, firstly, plain wrong - there was no delay as the men's final was simply scheduled to start after the women's final, there was no actual time scheduled.
Secondly, it was disrespectful to the women's final, which was amazingly close and a great match, and women's tennis in general.
Thirdly, there's no pleasing some - if the women's match had been over in 45 mins, everyone would have said it was poor value for money, women's tennis is so one-sided etc. etc. etc.
The centre won't be the reason Britain has top-100 players because the kids will have to be produced elsewhere 
