Hi Indy,

I'm not too sure about this myself.

I certainly think that the LTA should be running approximately 20 lowest-level ITF tournaments for either sex each year; and then at least a dozen for higher levels of ITF prize money. Without that, there is absolutely no chance that we ever catch up with nations that already run comparable programmes, such as the US, France, or Italy.

Then, you EITHER say, well the main tour is on either hard or clay - so we should offer tournaments to offer our players an entry onto the main tour playing surfaces, and hold as many as possible on either of these - preferably quite a lot on clay, as I feel that is the best training surface.

OR, we have to face that we are stuck with Wimbledon - which is on grass. The prize money on offer is so high that our mid-ranking players are dependent on an appearance there to make ends meet and to subsidise their losses throughout the rest of the year. So we will always offer the greatest advantage to players who excel on grass. So lay on as many tournaments as possible on grass, which is a surface on which our players have to excel, or retire due to penury.

If there were enough UK grass tournaments, and enough points on offer to make it a significant chunk of the ITF calendar, you might even spark a revival of interest in the surface from other tennis-playing countries. Neither La Liga nor Serie A stage football matches on clay; so it's clearly technically possible to prepare a grass playing surface in the Mediterranean rim. There's just no point for them, at the moment, because grass is so rarely used as a playing surface.

Lastly, I think the UK tennis-watching public is much more likely to turn up to watch tennis, visit the Pimms tent, eat their strawberries and generally pay their way, if invited along to some manicured lawns some enchanted summer evening, rather than to some dank sports hall stinking of sweat and disinfectant.