Since the admittedly embarrassing men’s Davis Cup defeat to Lithuania, the criticism directed at the Lawn Tennis Association and the clamour to slash funding and the management has reached fever pitch.
But taking a step back is British tennis really in such a bad state? Certainly the women’s side of the sport is holding up very well. Elena Baltacha is now ranked 65th in the world, and has had impressive results at the Australian Open and most recently in Indian Wells. Anne Keothavong is back after knee surgery and looking nearly back to her best, whilst both Laura Robson and Heather Wilson continue to carve themselves out a career on the full tour. It’s not unforeseeable that by the end of the year, we’ll have 3 women in the top 100 rankings. A feat not achieved in my lifetime in either the men’s or women’s game.
It’s true that the Murray brothers, Greg Rusedski, and to a lesser extent Tim Henman, all blossomed away from the guiding lights of the LTA. But if a regime can produce such a strong generation of women players, then it must be doing something right.
The ‘investigation’ into what went wrong in Lithuania is due to come to a head this week. We can only hope that whilst due respect needs to be paid to this damaging episode, that someone, somewhere, remembers to give credit to the likes of Baltacha, Keothavong and Robson. Who says that the long-awaited British Wimbledon victory needs to come from the men’s side of the draw anyway?