Nine out of eleven British players lost in the first round of Wimbledon this year.  One of the two who didn’t lose, Andy Murray, was sent by his mother, Judy, to develop and hone his career in Spain.  She simply couldn’t rely on the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) to bring out the best in her son.  In fact Judy, so dismayed at the inability of the LTA to nurture young tennis players, is planning her own tennis academy.

When you think of the millions that is being invested in British tennis, nine out of eleven players departing in the first round and the tenth exiting the second round, this is a disgrace, unacceptable.

Perhaps money spent on fancy tennis centres and elite academies in the UK is not the answer.  Roger Draper is the chief executive of the LTA but he hasn’t worked out yet that to create world champions of a sport you need a bigger pool to draw from.  The reason why Brazil won five World Cups is because something like 40/50 million Brazilians play the sport.  We can’t rely on producing a champion out of the middle class pool that practically completely makes up British tennis.

At school I wanted to be Pele but I would have loved the chance to play tennis.  So would have some of my schoolmates.  Now I visit many schools in my role as a writer but I always like to see the facilities any school has for sport.  It’s hard enough finding a school with a playing field but on the very rare occasions I do find one I haven’t seen a tennis court in it.

If we are really serious about succeeding in tennis then we need to get the Tyrones, Waynes, Lakeishas, Sharons and Sharmas from council estates and who attend comprehensives playing it.  Most working class parents simply cannot afford to take their kids to tennis academies so the LTA need to redirect their lottery millions and Wimbledon booty away from the plush centres of excellence and put it to grass root level.  Then, we might, just might, have a kid who attends a comprehensive in Deptford or Edmonton, pick up a racquet and finds that he/she is a champion at the sport. 

The next Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Venus Williams or Roger Federer is probably sitting in a classroom right now looking forward to a game of basketball in his/her physical education lesson.  Let’s give him or her the option of tennis.