British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Coup Droit wrote:

---

Var wrote:

---

Coup Droit wrote:

---

Var, it is not acceptable to 'blow cold' when you've been given a wildcard into your home Grand Slam

And, anyway, I don't think that's it

After all, you'd expect the other kids to look the same, then, wouldn't you?

And I dipped into a lot of other matches and it wasn't the case

And you should be asking the question about pushy parents, or LTA favourtism or whatever - it's a perfectly valid question

As people have noted, there was a real lack of fight, lack of willingness to engage, from some of the players

You simply can't make that many UEs, and just keep going, as though it doesn't matter - it should matter, this is Wimbledon, and if it doesn't, because you're 'blowing cold', then give it a miss this year

---

Well in that case they ought to be doing something else. If I w the mother of a prospective tennis player I think I would have mixed feelings, given the amount of criticism and bad press they seem to get. Seems to some that British women and British girls cant do anything right at present. Even on here. Frustration I get but knocking them down surely isnt the way to help and support a young teen. 

 

 

---

 That's a decision that mothers (and fathers) obviously have to take

Some of thse players are receiving relatively large amounts of public money. The comments here are not personal, to their lives, their characters, their looks, or anything else 

The comments here are purely about their tennis

And that is perfectly correct and proper 

People are allowed to criticise - and when there are at least three or four posters above all criticising exactly the same thing then maybe they have a point? And maybe it might even do the players good to realise how other people perceive it? 

---

 In my opinion, for what its worth, the LTA has created the problem. They take young players often as young as 10 , see potential and pile a lot of money at them. Meg is a classic example. At 10 there were 4 national coaches supporting her at a 12U Tennis Europe and they were all talking about her being the next Hannah. These kids are told they are brilliant and have so many opportunities such as trips abroad and even the opportunity to visit and play in the courts at Wimbledon at 11U!! . Those that then go to the national academy have everything handed on a plate to them. ITFs in very good hotels, including the Caribbean, coaches and S+C trainers to think for them and nutritionalists to cook for them. When do they learn to want to fight or to need to fight, like many of the other Europeans do. They dont. They have it all regardless. Then if they start to hate it they feel they have to stick with it because they are the best, they are treated specially because of it and they dont want to feel normal (for want of a better word) Nor do their parentsMaybe some of these players arent as promising as we often think, maybe theyve just reached their level very early due to the large amount of investment? (look at Sevil as well) 

Hannah herself is another one. Pushed from age 10, loads of money spend on her, hundreds of thousands. One LTA coach said that if she wasnt top 100 by the age of 18 she hasnt met expectations! So she grows up thinking she is something incredibly special, never has to want for anything tennis wise and then really struggles when the wins stop coming (same as Megan). Her mum now says that the early wins and hype actually harmed her. her game never developed for a while and she is now having to learnt to be far more agressive. She struggled with this initially as she started to lose more but it looks like she is still trying to- and I respect her a lot for that. I think she will continue to improve but this is the first period of time things have been hard for her.  

Mika on the other hand was always on the LTAs radar but not in the elite camp until 13/14. She had to play all the 12U and 14U normal national events (Hannah was considered too good for her own age group) and she learnt to fight for everything. She missed loads when she was younger as she used to hit everything as hard as she could, even back then, but the pressure wasnt on her like it was Hannah. Even in the national academy she was allowed to develop her own way. Look at her now.

Dani Britton (whose game I still find incredibly boring but cant deny her talent) was overlooked twice for the national academy. They didnt really rate her and she had to jump through a lot of hoops to get the place she wanted. Shes learnt to fight for what she wants and look at her at the moment. Liv has had it handed to her on a plate and looks like she both hates it but also takes it for granted that shes one of the LTAs favourites so must be good and should just win.

i honestly think the LTA has got to stop treating them like mini celebrities. stop all the hype around them and really teach them what they have to give and sacrifice if they want to be a professional player. And if they dont want to - or cant - then give the opportunities (and wildcards) to someone else. As many have said - pressure is a privilege. They have to want it and be able to cope with it and enjoy it 

-- Edited by Rose on Sunday 5th of July 2026 10:10:26 PM

Rose wrote:

---

JonH wrote:

---

x.com/judymurray/status/2073475938801619247

Judy seems to agree

---

 Is she is talking about qualifying? 6 boys and 6 girls played and one boy did get through to second round. Or was that the figures for the first day?  However, regardless of what day she is talking about the results were poor! Surely it must be obvious to everyone that the current system just does not work at all! 

-- Edited by Rose on Sunday 5th of July 2026 10:25:05 PM

-- Edited by Rose on Sunday 5th of July 2026 10:27:32 PM

---

Thanks for the review Rose. Its the kids behind this that I feel for. You just hope they get the help and support they need whatever the outcome. 

Coup Droit wrote:

---

I completely agree, Rose

And have said so many times - you need a pyramid, you need to support all the way down (at different levels), and it needs to be possible to move from one level to the other

When I was involved in France, there were about 30 kids on county scholarships of one form or another (i.e. getting free extra federation coaching once a wekk in a group right up to individual coaching several times a week). This was nota big county - but 30 (!!!) players getting some form of help.

Each county had a federation coach, just to be clear, and each county had a tennis HQ, with courts, where those lessons were given (and a lot of other things went ont)

The better ones then moved up to a regional level system, broadly the same tiers, and then a national level system, broadly the same

This was quite a long time ago now. And it really worked.

It is riduculous putting so much money and resources into any one 11 year-old

However, one key problem is the pay structure for the coaches.

From what I understand, the junior and senior sections at the LTA are completely separate. So the head of juniors basically gets paid purely on his/her performance with juniors. Sounds logical. But it isn't - that person will push and push for junior success - if you get a bonus and great kudos for a junior grand slam winner, then go all out on your pet person.

But junior coaches should also be performance paid on how those juniors do as adults - that's the ultimate goal.

There also seems to me to be way too much credit given to coaching mates, basically. i.e. the guy at Bath uni, say, gets his players in for wildcards etc because he's Bath Uni tennis - nothing to do with the actual level of the players

Each coach fights their corner for their player and the 'presitgious' coaches win, no matter.

And it is just as faction-ed at the NTC - there are clear camps for each of the 'star' players, not the players' fault at all, and the characters of those camps fight for their player because their reputation (with financial implications) is now tied to that one player. 

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Monday 6th of July 2026 07:46:56 AM

---

How on earth do you break that coaching structure down? It appears it has become institutionalised. Wouldnt they be better just supporting kids who showed real promise to go to overseas training centres? Thinking about Alex Eala( still in awe how a 13 year coped with that TBH, Philippines to Spain) or even Andy going to Sanchez Casal at 13, Novak to Nicola Pilot in Munich at 12. 

Coup Droit wrote:

---

Why farm it all out abroad?

That just gives you the same problem - assuming the academy doesn't offer a scholarship (as they did with Eala - and there are tons of stories just like her - think of Sharpova - or, more recently, Wakana Sonobe - or the young Ukrainian - all girls who left their parents and home countries to move fulltime to an academy at age 10 or 11 - it's common - more common than we realise because we only here of the ones like Eala and Sonobe who make it)

So, assuming no scholarship, the LTA would then pay zillions for a very select group of kids to go academies abroad

And they dont always work - look at Meg Knight

Far better to get a structure in the UK that is less centralised, and a pay system that is less in a couple of pairs of hands

---

Yeah, fair enough CD. In reality I cant see the powers that be voting to get rid of their own cronies though. 

sammmm wrote:

---

Mika has taken the first set but I don't think she's played particularly well for a lot of it. Her opponent is struggling with her service and gifted Mika the break as she appears scared of Mika's power but Mika has made so many unforced errors overhitting and going long or wide with her forehand

---

 Yes, that's Mika's game - it can truly be littered with UEs, but it's the other side of her coin, so to speak - hard-hit, powerful flat shots will always have less room for margin 

And her opponent is 18 months younger than Mika, born mid-2010, and doing very well - Austria (needless to say) is very excited - she's got a good head on her shoulders for her tennis, I think