Tennis Executive Takes British Players To Task

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 27th June 2013

Tennis Executive Takes British Players To Task

epa03762521 Britain's Andy Murray during a training session for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 27 June 2013. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association is repeatedly criticized but tables were turned as the man tasked with actually achieving quality results in the United Kingdom launched a stinging attack on home-based players at Wimbledon after only Andy Murray and Laura Robson survived the first round of the men’s and ladies’ singles.

The first round list of casualties totaled seven after Heather Watson along with wild card entrants James Ward, Kyle Edmund, Johanna Konta, Elena Baltacha, Anne Keothavong and Tara Moore all met with first round exits that were sweetened by the vastly improved £23,500 awarded to first round losers.

Simon Jones, Head of Performance at the LTA, was far from satisfied and stormed: “The message is we’ve got work to do and they’ve got to work harder.”

Jones is aware the LTA is about to move into a new era following the impending departure of chief executive Roger Draper with a successor likely to be named in the next few weeks.

He continued: “We’ve got to pull a few different levers to try to get the environment such that they’re going to work harder and put more effort in, because it’s not us that’s playing out there.”

But Watson, the first British woman to win a WTA title since was bullish about the state of British women’s tennis. “I’d say it’s not too bad,” said the Channel Islander who lost out in straight sets to the United States’ Madison Keys but is still recovering full fitness after a bout of mononucleosis (glandular fever). “We’ve got two players in the top 100.”

Moore, beaten by Kaia Kanepi, later joined in the retaliation to Jones’ comments on Twitter. The world no.194 did her best to demonstrate that desire by saving three match points in her 5-7, 7-5, 5-7 defeat, posted: “Try one week in our shoes and you’d see the effort we put into training and not just for the Wimbledon two weeks you guys seem to see…”