by Bob Stockton

@BobStockton10

It’s becoming increasingly hard to find many positives in the current state of affairs of matters concerning British tennis. We’re now in the last throes of a year that British tennis stars will be relieved to see the back of but, then again, even within touching distance of 2021, there is no sign of the situation improving.

It has, in all honesty, been a bad year on the courts for Britain with no single player looking capable of becoming a Grand Slam contender anytime soon. It’s a curious situation when you consider the dominant success that the United Kingdom has enjoyed in other sporting codes.

For instance, the English football team made the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the English cricket team won the World Cup in 2019. The rugby team came within a whisker of winning the 2019 World Cup in Japan, eventually finishing as runners up. You then look at Lewis Hamilton who has recently won four Formula One World Championships in a row and you’re left convinced that it is not down to a lack of sporting talent on the island.

Another indication of how poorly British tennis has performed this year is the annual Sports Personality of the Year odds from Paddy Power which always gives you a good idea of who has carried the sporting flag for Britain over the last 12 months. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t show a single tennis player in the running for the award.

So why are Britain’s tennis achievements so inferior to that of other sporting codes in the kingdom? There’s no easy answer to that and certainly no silver bullet that could turn around the fortunes of British tennis overnight, but we can identify that the general problem seems to be at a grassroots level.

There have been a few whispers of late that seem to suggest that funding is a problem for budding tennis players in the UK. Indeed, those that do not have the financial resources that are needed often drift away from the game and don’t pursue the path to professional tennis. Of course, there is funding available for junior players courtesy of the Lawn Tennis Association, but they have to win ranking points to qualify for it. Here is the problem, there are so few junior tournaments in England that provide these precious ranking points, given that most of them take place on the continent of Europe.

So any junior players who are in need of financial assistance have to find the money to travel around Europe to play these tournaments in the hope that they can qualify for funding. It’s not hard to see how many talented players over the years would have been lost to the system. In many respects, the lack of young players coming through the ranks is probably the reason that there are currently only two British men’s players in the top 50 of the world rankings. Only Johanna Konta made the top 50 list in the women’s ranking, coming in at a respectable 14th position.

Worryingly, though, is how long Konta will keep flying the flag after she recently admitted to possibly only playing for another two years. As mentioned, the positives concerning British tennis are in short supply.

The powers that be of British tennis have to make sure that the sport is more inclusive going forward and that the best and brightest talents do not give up the game after feeling alienated due to a lack of financial support.