I'll generally be as critical as most on this forum, and of course it's a bit disappointing when you see the rankings at Wimbledon 3 years, and then see them now, regarding that young group of players:

I know there was a lot of future circumstances around most of these players I'll be mentioning, but on paper, the likes of Katie S, just turned 19, won a Wimbledon main draw match, comfortably inside the top 200, looking decent, then 3 years later she's about 100 places lower down, Gabi completely out of the picture now. Even Harriet, she's had that great run at Wimbledon, qualified for a lot of slams, and has been one of the better GB players to follow in recent years, but on paper, she's moved up about 20 places in 3 years, pushing 25, and has upcoming points to defend. Katie B about 100+ places lower 3 years on, you kind of forget about Katy D as she's hardly played in a year, but even then, 'just' 23 y/o, so younger than the likes of Harriet and Katie B are now, and just outside the top 200, but that's as good as it got for her at that stage. Maia's not much further forward, and the likes of Beth, Alicia etc. have kind of just naturally sifted towards the W15 600/700 range, Freya kind of the same (albeit still a few years younger), but her stock has certainly decreased massively as well. Laura isn't a factor anymore, Naomi's shifting towards a doubles player. Emily Ap lower ranked 3 years later. 

Fran (particularly) and Jodie have generally been a fairly bright spark these past couple of years, and their stock is a lot higher, Emma too, when she plays, although I can't help but feel a lot on here will be pinning their hopes on her in terms of realistic top 50 type players like we have had with Jo, Heather, and Laura. I'm sure that's what Heather was meaning at that rant the last year, not the likes of Matilda and Emma (who was 17 at the time), but the next batch of actual top 50, or even top 100 quality players - there's 11 years difference between Heather and Emma, but there's not many candidates between them.

So yes, I can see where Chris is coming from. While there's obviously been loads of unfortunate injuries, COVID, mental health problems, and other issues, at that stage in 2018 we did look like we could have around 5 youngish players go against the historical grain and push on and crack the top 100, especially while they were still commercially hot, and that's not really happened, and it's probably more going to be passing top 100 visits if they actually get there now, rather than fully establishing themselves as solid 60-90 players for a number of years, getting their names out a bit more with the general public, and taking advantage of any lucrative endorsement offers that come their way, but it's slightly different if you're 27 than if you were properly breaking through at 23/24, which looked quite likely 3 years ago.

That said, general landscape aside, I don't see anything wrong with these RG results thus far - Harriet had a very good win, Fran had an extremely tough draw, like awful, Jodie was also up against it today (although she did have a few actual disappointing results heading into today), and if we're pinning our hopes on 33 year Sam, with one of the lowest profiles you'll see, then there really are problems, ha.

Hopefully Harriet can qualify again now that her draw has opened up a bit, so that she will have played in every slam main draw, and then it can just take a few surprise grass wins, like we had plenty of in 2018, and things can start to look a bit more rosier again.

Chris wrote:

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Other countries may have the same problems but its GB girls I follow. Have done since the early 70s when I fell in love with Evonne Goolagong although she was Australian. So I have heard the same thing for a long time. Seen a lot of tennis and a lot of GB girls. Frustrating because they do have talent just not the ability to get the wins that we all hope for. Would like to see Harriet up there again and pushing into the top 100. What do you think of a coach out there somewhere teaching the art of serve and volley. Use to really enjoy watching that. Its how I use to play, still do just a bit slower. Thanks for letting me have my opinion and not giving me grief for it. Believe me when I say I am 100% behind GB. Would love for it to just click for a lot of them. Good luck Harriet.

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Yeah, I'm similar. I mean I do have a lot of overseas faves who I follow, but that top 100 is absolutely massive (from my POV) and like a huge dangling carrot - pretty much guaranteed entry to all the slams, and the pay cheques that come with it, direct entry into most WTA 250's rather than the odd qualifying, LL, WC appearance, and crucially, all matches on a proper broadcaster, so you actually watch all the matches, rather than hoping an ITF event is being streamed, and one of the GB players is on an allocated streamed court - they're kind of like different sports. I guess the more numbers you have around that slam qual entry level, and we did have 4 competing here, and a couple more on the periphery, the more chances that someone could break through, but certainly a long way off your dream of 6+ girls in the top 100. 

I watch so much WTA on Prime, and can't help but wish there were a few more GB players involved in the events as well, especially as the WTA players we currently do have, Jo and Heather, are 30 and 29, been around for years, probably not many years left, and kind of feel a little bit stale, at least to me anyway.

I feel much more positive than others on here - I think the glass is half full at least, as regards British players.

2 things to really remember - we normally do badly on clay, so this is a bad point at which to assess where Brits are at, and Covid has altered the ranking system, making it far harder for players to make rapid rises up the rankings.

Looking to the future, Harriet is regaining form and looks to have a shot at making the top 100, which would of course mean playing top players the whole time, which would be likely to improve and fine tune her game.

Katie B remains our biggest prospect; the injuries haven't been kind, but this year has seen a big rise up the rankings and by the end of the year she should be back in the top 200 and pushing for a place back in the big time.

Fran has improved hugely over the last year, and Jodie B is beginning to look like a top player - they are both a distance from the top 100 at the moment, but progress is definitely possible.

Katie S has the talent, but for me, she needs to be playing more regularly and to make sure her mental state is tip-top - if she can overcome her issues, I feel she is probably our second best prospect behind Katie B.

Emma and Matilda also give hopes for that we have teenagers who will break through, so although Jo Ko and Heather are getting towards the tail end of excellent careers, I do feel we have players to be excited about and some who hopefully will break through to the top 100 - and from there players play other players at top level and then often their game massively improves.

I have a feeling that by the end of Wimbledon, we will all be feeling more positive about our Brits - the French Open is normally our low point of the year.

Oh and good luck and go Harriet; we are all willing you to make the tournament proper.

Andy Parker wrote:

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I have a feeling that by the end of Wimbledon, we will all be feeling more positive about our Brits - the French Open is normally our low point of the year.

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Andy Parker wrote:

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I genuinely do think that things should pick up for some of our players when the short grass court season starts. A lot depends on the luck factor of good draws, but normally things feel better after Wimbledon than during the French Open.

I also think that it is worth saying that all the Old World countries are suffering a decline in fortunes - Spain, France, Australia etc, and that so many of the newer post-industrialised countries are now catching up and making tennis much more competitive globally. Go back 40 or 50 years and you would have seen about 20 Spanish players in the top 100, numerous French, Australian, American and some Brits, Germans and Italians - now you see masses of players from the countries which were previously part of the Soviet block like Romania and Slovakia for instance, and you are also seeing lots more Chinese players and players from countries that previously had no top players and sometimes no professional players.

All that means that a shift in the world order is happening and that with lots of countries now seriously challenging at tennis to create top players, it is now much more difficult to get to the top, and probably unrealistic with a 70 million population, to expect more than a handful of players to make the top 100.

I agree though with others that tennis is still perceived as a game for the white middle classes and that some of our coaches don't help that perception.

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 As the (single, poor)parent of a mixed race child, I actually find comments like this a much bigger problem, all you're doing is reinforcing a perception that tennis is white middle class but when was the last time you actually went and watched a junior ratings tournament in your local area.  My Son learned to play tennis at a club that whilst not one of the 'posh' clubs, is located in a village with one of the highest percentages of millionaires in the Country. Never did he experience any racism, in fact he is the one the adults loved and still ask me how he is because he was polite and, more importantly, a good player. Any elitism or snobbery in tennis in my experience has been down to ability. There is no more racism in tennis than any other part of society.  But this constant banging on about it creates the perception and it's that that causes the problem.  Funnily enough it doesn't seem to stop Eastern european parents from getting their kids into tennis. My son now runs tournaments and most of the participants are eastern european or black, very few white kids there and even less well off ones.

I think London is a prime example of tennis being an elitist sport in the UK. I live in central London and it's nigh on impossible to get public courts, there aren't that many and the bookings go within seconds of going live. Around London Bridge, Kennington, Clapham, Vauxhall and so on. And most of the indoor courts are in private clubs. My friend just bought a place in Putney which has a private court attached the apartments! Just crazy to me - I didn't even know that was a thing. To me this whole structure in the UK is very elitist, and makes it harder for children from non affluent backgrounds to get involved/stay involved.