Britain not a 'tennis nation'

Top tennis coach Nick Bollettieri has refused to blame the Lawn Tennis Association's hierarchy for last weekend's Davis Cup embarrassment, insisting instead the problem is down to Great Britain not being a "tennis nation".

There have been widespread calls for both LTA chief Roger Draper and captain John Lloyd to step down in the wake of the defeat to Lithuania, a result that leaves Great Britain one play-off away from relegation into the competition's lowest tier.

However, Bollettieri, who has coached the likes of Boris Becker, Andre Agassi and the Williams sisters in his career and who currently has Lithuanian number one Ricardas Berankis working in his Florida academy, believes the problem is rather more fundamental.

Writing in his column on www.sportingintelligence.com, the American said: "To pick one or two people and start calling for them to be removed isn't a cure-all solution.

"The blame game won't work because British tennis has shortcomings with deep cultural and historical roots. There's even an argument that Britain is not a "tennis nation".

"Sure, you stage the most prestigious event in the world - Wimbledon. But your national sports are soccer and cricket, and your Olympic resources go to cycling, rowing, sailing, swimming, all sports at which you excel at or are improving in. Tennis is part of a social scene.

"So to argue that Roger Draper, the chief executive of the LTA, is responsible for British tennis's ills is to misidentify the problem. If you'd had generations of Grand Slam winners and then they'd disappeared, then seek blame. But those generations of British tennis winners never existed, not this side of the black-and-white movie era."
Improvement

Outlining how he might improve the situation, Bollettieri suggested: "I guess in a Utopia I'd say build an academy in England and open it to the world. Put your best and the best of the rest together. But that's not a small ambition, that's a long way off, if at all.

"(In the short term) I'd say take your best young players and help them to spend time in other, more testing environments, even just for a few weeks here and there.

"You need to make your athletes central to your planning, and find a way so the best work together. You need consistently to push your players, to provide them with the best coaches. Those coaches also need exposure to the best methods from elsewhere.

"I'm talking now about the players below (British number one Andy) Murray, the young players like Daniel Evans and James Ward who played against Lithuania. At their age - 19 and upwards - it should no longer be about techniques, it should be about building physical strength, about conditioning, mentality, strategy, and of course day-in, day-out improvement against players as good and better than you."