BRITISH TENNIS IN BIG MESS WITH DOWNEY

Written by: Staff on 20th December 2014

BRITISH TENNIS IN BIG MESS WITH DOWNEY |

LTA Austerity Program Already Showing Results , JUST NOT IN A GOOD WAY !

Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association, once the most profligate spending national governing body but now committed to a program of austerity under chief executive Michael Downey, have been accused of forcing a number of talented youngsters into turning their back on the sport.

Three years ago Oliver Golding was the US Open junior champion, now he is a former tennis player after opting to quit in August and maintained the reduction of the LTA’s bonus scheme as the cause and admitted that the closure of the high-performance program at the once state-of-the art £40 million (US$65.5m) National Tennis Centre in Roehampton the last straw.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph in his first major interview since deciding to retire at the age of 21, Golding said: “It’s crazy. The people who need funding are the ones at the lower levels. You just can’t make ends meet playing Futures $10,000s. I think a hell of a lot of people will give up. “It’s a hell of a tough life. The rewards are very limited. I can understand that the LTA want to have targets but I think it’s tough enough as it is.”

Golding, a former child actor who appeared in movies such as Coming Home alongside Keira Knightly and The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby as well as a London stage production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, considered basing himself in France in a quest for better facilities.

However he admitted: “I was struggling to find places to train that were good enough. Going to France would have been another 15 weeks away per year, and it’s not a secret that I have found the traveling difficult.

“Just before I was going to move overseas, I played a tough run of tournaments in Taiwan and Kazakhstan. I thought ‘If I am struggling to do this when based in London, it’s going to be even worse when I’m based in France.”

Golding is one of five promising British youngsters who have quit this year. George Morgan (Wimbledon 2011 Boys Doubles champion and Australian Open semi-finalist), Ashley Hewitt, Jack Carpenter and 19-year-old Harry Meehan all decided professional tennis was not the life for them.

“It’s an issue in UK that we don’t create enough tennis players which means there is more pressure on the ones that do try to make it.” said Golding who in recent weeks has helped out at his mother’s tennis coaching school and is now contemplating a career in business.

“People tend to write you off very early, and if things aren’t going well for six months it’s a disaster. Yes, we’ve got a gap in that area of players from 30 to 70 in the world, but those players don’t usually break through at 20, more likely at 24.”