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Britain needs Murray, not money, for recovery

LONDON - On paper much about British men’s tennis looks good but when it comes to grass, clay, concrete and rubber, things tend to dip alarmingly.

The British game, largely through the annual windfall of Wimbledon, is awash with money but has problems keeping its up-and-coming players on court as they desert the drudge of low-key tournaments for the ease and security of coaching.

It is not short of good players, even excellent ones in the case of world number four Andy Murray, yet last month Britain lost a Davis Cup tie to Lithuania with their two best performers fit but absent.

British tennis is certainly not short of facilities, with the three-year-old, 40 million pounds ($61 million) national centre in west London, a shining, multi-surfaced beacon with state-of-the art training, coaching, medical, fitness and administrative opportunities.

Yet should they lose a Euro-Africa group II playoff with Turkey in July, the nine-times winners will be relegated to the lowest tier of the competition.

Only the United States and Australia have won the competition more times than Britain and though Fred Perry was in his pomp last time they tasted success, the prospect of facing Iceland, San Marino, Andorra or Malta is hard to swallow for a nation so steeped in the history of the game.

That is the background to Monday’s appointment of Murray’s former coach Leon Smith as the new Davis Cup captain following the resignation of John Lloyd after five successive defeats.

Murray chose to sit out the Lithuania tie, with British number two Alex Bogdanovic also absent after falling out of favour with Lloyd, and the humiliating setback led to another wide-ranging review of the men’s game by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).

TALENTED YOUNGSTERS

One of the elements to quickly emerge was that players challenging to be in the top half-dozen in the country are leaving the game in their early 20s.

‘Our problem is not an absence of talented youngsters but the difficulty of keeping them in the game,’ LTA head of player development Steven Martens told Reuters. ‘These guys are looking around in their early 20s, maybe they’ve got girlfriends who are not so happy with all their travelling, and even if they win they know they can make more money coaching at the local leisure centre.’

Martens’ plan to combat this problem is to ‘incentivise success’. Rather than throwing money at players for hotels and travel, the LTA will look to bump up the meagre prize money available for progressing in the low-key tournaments.

That might eventually help fatten the rump of the British game and keep them bobbing along in the third division of the Davis Cup but if they are to return to the World Group and even dream of a first final since 1978, then Murray has to be brought back on board.

The appointment of Smith, who coached Murray during his junior years and remains a good friend of his fellow Scot, would seem a step in the right direction but the new boss gave little hope of an immediate change in the situation.

Smith, 34, was an infant last time Britain reached a Davis Cup final and still looks closer to a teenage prodigy than knowing mentor.

Though he is young and has never played in the Davis Cup, he has been a professional coach for 18 years and is highly respected in the game and has the ear of Murray.

‘I speak to Andy regularly but the situation has not changed,’ he said. ‘He will decide on a tie-by-tie basis whether he plays and I respect his decision on that.

‘I realise he has got wider things and ambitions than British tennis at this point in his career, his main focus is on winning a grand slam and I support that.’

Smith said he would love Murray to return for the playoff against Turkey the week after Wimbledon in July, but said the future of the British should not be dependent on it.

‘It’s important that the next level of players step up to the mark and with the players we have we should have been good enough to beat Lithuania,’ he said.

Murray himself seemed underwhelmed at best by his former coach’s appointment. Speaking at the Monte Carlo Open on Monday he stressed that he had not even mentioned Smith’s name when talking to the LTA about the appointment.

‘I’m not taking any responsibility for Leon’s appointment,’ Murray said. ‘He is very young in coaching terms ... it’s a huge, huge responsibility for him. He needs to make sure he surrounds himself with the right people.’

The fourth-best player in the world would be a useful start.