Dan Evans lost his first round match to Tanis Kokkinakis, which means he only has one Roland Garros win in six tries. Credit: Getty Images/Clive Brunskill
Tennis in Britain is, as Dan Evans said last week, too elitist. It was like a truism – like he said the dinosaurs were extinct. The more interesting question is, “What can we do about it?”
The sport, as any player or parent knows firsthand, is dominated by the same locals who sit on the Lawn Tennis Association's board. Perhaps Evans exaggerated a bit when he said that “10 times out of 10 they [players who make a living playing] are from a very good area.”
But the broader pattern is hard to deny. At the entry level, many clubs are very affordable. However, they mostly sit in green suburbs and look askance at thugs from afar.
As you climb the corporate ladder, the financial demands increase. Coaching costs are on the rise, especially travel costs. To optimize your international rankings as a youth, you must be able to plan a 12-month schedule with frequent flights outside the UK. Like everything in tennis, the task is more difficult than it seems at first glance.
Take, for example, Serena Nash (now 25 and no longer playing tennis), a former British No. 1 junior from a black working-class family in Yorkshire. As a teenager, Nash found an angel investor who financed trips to European events from time to time. But she felt such pressure to justify his investment that her productivity suffered. So how do we solve this problem?
Well, there are many experts who say it's a red herring. Of course, it would be nice to level the playing field by establishing scholarships for less wealthy young people. And yet, even with Wimbledon's £50m annual windfall, the LTA budget won't be drawn to systematic social engineering.
“Not only am I from the working class,” said British coach Calvin Betton, “but I coached a guy who was so poor that his family was evicted from their homes. You cannot give such a person a couple of grand to help him, because it will not touch the sides.
“You need to go narrow and deep – and that’s actually what the LTA has done with these £70,000 Pro Scholarship Scholarship Program contracts which include coaching, physical therapy and travel. grew up on a council estate in Hull] on one of these.
Paul Jubb went down a path quite different from many of his tennis peers. Photo: Getty Images/Eddie Mulholland
But at the same time, it's hard to get off the ground with just five PSP students.” Especially when two of them (Jody Burrage and Harriet Dart) were privately educated. Former LTA Executive Director David Felgate, who now runs an independent junior tennis training program, broadly agrees:
“Look at the world and you will see that most professionals come from a comfortable environment, whatever the nation. Barriers to entry are not unique to the UK.”
This does not mean that we should stop trying completely. Felgate says he still would like the funding to be spread more widely. The same coaches question the idea that working-class players necessarily have to be hungrier than richer ones on the grounds that they don't have insurance.
Betton, who propelled a pair of working-class youngsters to the top of Britain's junior rankings, says the most ambitious and determined youngster he ever worked with was the son of a surgeon and general practitioner.
“Successful tennis players are often outsiders”
If there is a favorable moment in the development of tennis – again, not only in Britain, but all over the world – it belongs to immigrant families. Successful tennis players are often outsiders in some way, which explains why they choose individual discipline while team sports are more social and better organized. Emma Raducanu is a classic example: first-generation British, her father is Romanian, and her mother is Chinese.
The entire family had a strong work ethic, but were comfortable enough to live in the pleasant London suburb of Orpington: a tennis hearth by limited British standards. Much of this is returned to the culture. If you are Nash or Jubb and you are rising to the top of the British youth pyramid, you are already a lightning strike in human form because very few working class kids play tennis at all.
On the contrary, every French student picks up a tiny racket on Wednesday morning (a day dedicated to sports). Some of these themes are explored in Judy Murray's upcoming novel, The Wild Card, which follows a working-class heroine who has achieved great things. As Murray told Telegraph Sport:
“My character, Abi, had a difficult childhood but was incredibly lucky to meet Georgie, a wealthy friend who has a mother who takes them anywhere and a yard in the back garden. “I didn't do it by accident,” Murray added. “I was trying to emphasize how difficult it is to do this without the huge support of the family.
That's why I'm working with my local community to see if we can organize more local competitions, thus eliminating the need to travel around the world. Look at Italy, who really fly at a professional level. They have invested heavily in their clubs and venues, and they host more Futures events than anyone else.” Murray stumbled upon something here.
Clubs shape culture and British tennis clubs tend to be less competitive than their European counterparts. Many function as lads and gals dining centers and don't want ambitious juniors to get in the way of amateurs, especially juniors who don't wear the right shoes.
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