Shropshire Magazine

Winners together? Tim Henman and Pete Sampras share the applause on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

Tennis is one of Britain’s most popular summer sports, so it is all the more surprising that we have produced only a handful of world-class players in the 65 years since the war. Indeed, the men’s game sank to a new low with Davis Cup defeat to lowly Lithuania in March. With the French Open under way and Wimbledon approaching, Andy Murray once again represents the only hope of ending our 74-year wait for an heir to Fred Perry as a Grand Slam champion. Here Shirley Tart considers the state of British tennis and looks at the work being done in the UK — and here in Shropshire — to improve our fortunes.

Anyone for tennis? The question still conjures up greenery and vicarage lawns, baggy whites and courtesy on the courts, strawberries at teatime on the terrace.Trappings of yesteryear and a very pleasant scene indeed.

But is that anywhere near the preparation which might produce 21st-century champions in fast-moving, hard-playing tournaments across the world?

We all know the answer is a quite emphatic ‘no’.

Today’s top tennis players have to be supreme athletes, must commit many hours a day to grinding training, practising, ironing out every blip in the game plan and following a lifestyle totally geared to health and stamina. They must also have that extra magic which separates excellent players from potential superstars.

This month, we focus just a bit more on the great sport, as our own Championships begin at leafy Wimbledon, still the mecca to which all top players aspire. And for us, where we yearn to see a home-grown hero raise the coveted cup. Never has a former champion remained in the sporting mind for longer than Fred Perry, the last Briton to win the men’s Wimbledon singles in 1936.

Virginia Wade, 65 this year, won the Ladies’ Championship in July 1977, as the tournament marked its centenary. The Queen marked her silver jubilee and attended the championships for the first time in 25 years.

Women have done rather better than the men in the modern game: Birmingham’s Ann Haydn Jones won through in 1969 and, before that, Angela Mortimer in 1961, the year she was world number one.

And while we have lived in hope through the careers of our top players since, only Tim Henman came close. He was attractive material as well. Quietly charming, a good looker, steady middle-class values and although he didn’t win a slam, Tim’s record was impressive and what a fine ambassador for his sport.

Now, there is Andy Murray. A different species, product of a top tennis background — mum Judy was a Scottish champion and Andy’s early coach, while his brother Jamie is a high-ranking doubles player.

Andy went away to train in Spain at 15, attending the Schiller International School in Barcelona, training on the clay courts of the Sánchez-Casal Academy. At the time of writing this he is world number four, having held the number-two ranking for two weeks last August, a brief moment which made him the highest-ranked British male player since Fred Perry.

He has reached two Grand Slam finals, finishing runner-up to Roger Federer at both the 2008 US Open and this year’s Australian Open. No mean achievement.

But Andy’s background made headlines long before his tennis did. He was caught up in the Dunblane Primary School massacre in 1996 when Thomas Hamilton killed 17 people, mostly children, before turning a gun on himself. Andy took cover in a classroom.

Now 22, much more powerful and focused than in his teenage years, he plays up there with the world’s best and he will win a Grand Slam or two.

But does British tennis really depend on the individual successes of Andy Murray? It is a terrible pressure on one guy and we are bound to ask whether the millions of pounds ploughed into the sport at national level are paying off at all.

Our Davis Cup team has descended into abject failure and humiliating demotion, with coach John Lloyd paying the price for the recent, dreary failure.

With our one-time number two, Greg Rusedski, now commentating rather than playing, a quick poll among even those who are fans reveals a lamentable knowledge of any current names — with the possible exception of British number-one woman Elena Baltacha, originally from the Ukraine  but who now plays for us — and she has not progressed beyond the third round at either Wimbledon or the Australian Open.

Character

If Elena is our best woman, that she is currently 59th in the world does perturb our tennis-loving nation.

With our super-facilities, determination and players of undoubted talent and character, why are we not making better progress on the world stage? Whatever has happened to the beautiful game of tennis in Britain?

We have youngsters who start with such promise but don’t make senior top-graders. Fingers are crossed right now for young Laura Robson, who celebrated her 16th birthday in January. She was amazing at 14; what can we hope for when Laura is 24?

Yet here, we have the world-famous All England Championships, we have a strong structure in place and, three years ago, the National Tennis Centre opened as a focal point for Britain’s top players. It has 22 courts, accommodation and a world-class sports science centre.

The specific aim of the centre at Roehampton, not far from Wimbledon itself on the outskirts of London, was to develop the skills of young British players for world-class competition.

Many thought the fortune put in at the top should have been spent seriously developing grass-roots tennis first of all.

How many young people from Shropshire, for instance, can regularly visit Roehampton unless they are already among the golden chosen ones? How many families could afford it? Indeed how many can easily pay out for local training and the rounds of smaller tournaments needed to even think of aiming for the big time?

The National Tennis Centre, also now headquarters of the Lawn Tennis Association, which moved from its former home at Queen’s Club, cost around £39 million.

The LTA hoped it would become a one-site national focus for the sport in Great Britain, giving players the very best opportunity to realise their potential by offering world-class facilities and back-up.

Yet even the British Tennis website says frankly: “There is no question that British tennis lacks strength in depth at the top end, but we do have some talented players.”

So what are we going to do about it?

Chris Hinks, lead volunteer with Tennis Shropshire, and Cathie Sabin, LTA councillor and main board member.

Enter Cathie Sabin. A former teacher, a fine county player for many years, a leading coach with a seasoned eye for talent, Cathie lives at Much Wenlock and is a member of the main board of the LTA. That makes her pretty important in tennis terms.

She is president of Tennis Shropshire and this year was awarded the National Volunteer of the Year Award by LTA president Derek Howarth. Cathie is big time.

She is also chairman of the Schools Advisory Group, a member of the board of the Tennis Foundation and chairman of the AEGON Classic held in Birmingham before Wimbledon.

Cathie came to Shropshire in 1970, was a founder tennis club member at the National Sports Centre, Lilleshall, joined Bridgnorth club in 1975 and still plays for county veteran teams.

At Idsall School in Shifnal, she was instrumental in developing tennis and funding for all-weather floodlit courts when the school became a sports college.

I met Cathie and Anna Birkinshaw, LTA tennis development manager for Shropshire and Staffordshire, at the splendid Welti Centre on the outskirts of Shrewsbury which goes from strength to strength, yet was built on a dream.

The dream Stephen Welti nurtured that he might produce a Wimbledon champion.

So how close is he to seeing it come true?

Cathie is a positive force for tennis here and farther afield and can point to direct help filtering through to Shropshire in a big way.

“All these things take time to work out into the country - but it is happening. Coverage has been so negative since we lost in the Davis Cup against Lithuania, but there really is good news as well. Our women are doing far better than the men; there are three in the top hundred and just one man. But now we have LTA tennis development managers who cover every aspect of tennis, and Alison McDonald, who was a Shropshire county captain, is in charge of talent performance — talent spotting, I suppose.”

Cathie also thinks we sometimes ask too much of our players in demanding a teenage champion, for instance.

“The average age of the top 100 men is 26. And here, Wimbledon becomes a huge pressure. Players like Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras have always said that the pressure on our players to win Wimbledon is far greater than players in other countries with their national tournaments.”

Both women also believe every effort is made to keep tennis affordable for families.

Anna is excited about projects like a new tennis centre in Oakengates — also reaching out to incorporate the ‘park’ tennis on which so many of us were weaned — and thinks it will all help transform opportunities in the east of the county.

Critical

Over the last three years the LTA has been developing a systematic talent identification process to get and keep young players on track for elite level tennis. And since most top players start by the age of five, getting them young is critical and maybe now, the future.

To that end, 100,000 racquets as well as other equipment have gone into primary schools, and the Tennis Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the LTA, delivers training courses, DVD teaching aids and so on.

Why do we have to look back to Fred Perry for tennis inspiration?

Listening to Cathie and Anna, there is a steady flow of expertise now filtering through to the grass roots. Top Shropshire players Charlotte Martin, who is 20, and Emma Windsor, a year younger, are both training at American universities.

At this year’s Classic Tournament in Birmingham, Longden club will be presented with the coveted Clubmark — the kitemark of excellence.

Val Fisher from Baschurch is inspirational in building up wheelchair tennis at Welti. And Shropshire will have four line judges at Wimbledon this year including twins Andrew and Michael Davies.

So actually, Shropshire tennis is very much alive and well. And nationally? Enthusiasts Cathie Sabin and Anna Birkenshaw definitely think things are looking up if not quite yet soaring. Let’s say game on then — for now!