sport news MIKE DICKSON: British tennis MUST listen to Dan Evans... too many are not ... trends now
When Dan Evans suggests that there may be a soft underbelly to the high performance aspect of British tennis it is worth having a listen.
A broadly disappointing Madrid Open for the Brits has seen a solitary singles win, in contrast to twelve months previously, and there was just one player who attempted qualifying. As a result the 32 year-old Midlander wondered out loud whether enough players are getting out there on tour and learning their trade.
Evans, the world number 24, has certainly learned his since he used to play against adults in the Birmingham leagues. After making his Futures debut in 2005 he has played 837 professional singles matches and gone on a journey like few others.
For years he was an underachiever who lived on the wild side, but has come through that to establish a serious career. This despite his relative lack of physical stature in a sport increasingly dominated by strapping hulks. If, like in boxing, there was the benefit of particular weight divisions he might have had a world championship belt by now.
Evans is also passionate about the British game and his experience and knowledge means that, one day, he should be a significant asset to it on the coaching side. Whether the Lawn Tennis Association would welcome someone who is, against the norm, willing to give an unfiltered view of how he sees things is open to question.
When Dan Evans suggests that there may be a soft underbelly to the high performance aspect of British tennis it is worth having a listen
The admirable Norrie was the only British singles winner in Madrid, and while he is British he can hardly be described as a product of the UK game
His point at the weekend was that some players are simply not following the example of himself and particularly Cam Norrie, in doing the hard yards when it comes to international competition.
The admirable Norrie was the only British singles winner in Madrid, and while he is British he can hardly be described as a product of the UK game. Moreover, next Monday, GB will not have a top 100 ranked women's player for the first time in fifteen years after Emma Raducanu drops her Madrid points.
It is a fact that, in the intervening time, more than £500 million has flowed into the LTA's coffers just from the annual surplus made by Wimbledon.
This really ought to be turned to an advantage. Yet it can also create a certain cosiness and jobs-for-life culture which is not conducive to producing players who have to battle against East Europeans and others, who compete as if their next meal depends on the outcome of every match.
British prospects often fall down in the transition period that comes after showing promise as a junior. Do all singing and dancing national academies, or Roehampton's swish National Training Centre - said to be eerily quiet on a Friday as staff work from home - prepare people to hustle for points in places like Tunisia and Uzbekistan?
The support network in areas such as sports science and medicine for those earmarked as elite prospects is meant to be all-encompassing. Yet GB players seem to get injured at least as much as those from other countries with far fewer resources.
These matters come into sharper focus after a recent run for the higher performing Brits which has seen more withdrawals, defeat at the Billie Jean King Cup, a singles wipeout at the Miami Open and only Norrie preventing the same thing happening in Madrid.
The LTA can reasonably point to its roster of Grand Slam champions in singles and doubles events over the past ten years - thanks to the outliers Murray and
