Davis Cup success brings the failures of British tennis to light

Britain’s victorious Davis Cup team pose in front of the trophy. Mike Harrison argues that the LTA needs to do more to boost the game at local level. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

WHILE we are used to hearing about the need for root and branch reform after our national sporting failures (football World Cups passim) it comes as a surprise when such criticism follows our victory in the Davis Cup (British tennis must face facts after new breed fails to emerge, Sport, 2 December)

I disagree with Baroness Billingham when she lays the blame at the feet of the government for cutting sport in state schools. While one of former education secretary Michael Gove’s most unpopular acts was to abolish the national network of school sport partnerships, tennis continues to be played in most secondary schools. However, it should be noted that those pupils who show an aptitude for tennis have already been coached at a local club or have played on local courts.

If, as your article suggests, Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Michael Downey wants to revive park tennis then bravo! But what is the LTA doing to bring that about? I would suggest that it would be very simple to carry out an audit of all park tennis courts and make a list of those that need improving through LTA funds. I am willing to volunteer to conduct such a survey in Bath that I could complete in a day.

The poor state of park tennis courts has long been a concern of mine. In a letter to our local paper in 2011, I highlighted the poor state of the courts at our local park, Sydney Gardens, and asked why, despite the LTA receiving millions every year, they were still an embarrassment to the city.

I expect this question could be asked about many other town park courts. I still do not know the answer.
Mike Harrison
Secretary, the Iconoclasts Tennis Club, Bath

• You report the LTA’s Michael Downey hoping the Davis Cup team’s success “will inspire people to pick up a racket and get on court”. There need to be courts to get on to, and the appeal of national success needs to dwarf the suffocating tweeness many associate with tennis. It is a simple sport, good exercise, social and in principle inexpensive; yet it is seen as out of touch and elitist.

A casual glance at the spectators at Wimbledon jars when one considers the social and racial mix of London. And therein lies the problem: Wimbledon, the All England Lawn Tennis Club and the BBC, who together present the tournament as a festival of lost Britishness, with a narrow social base.

Between them they conspire to make it look like a church fair run by self-regarding villagers who unexpectedly bagged a stellar guest list. Wimbledon is therefore part of the wider problem. That the success of someone as talented, high-profile and agreeable as Murray has not spurred more people into the game shows just how far its administrators need to go.
David Stockley
Reigate, Surrey

• Along with countless other sports and tennis fans I am elated at the victory of the British team in the Davis Cup, an outcome that seemed impossible only five years ago. I am also in awe of Andy Murray’s commitment to the team in a competition where many of the phenomenal players at his level choose to focus on their own personal success.

The facts and statistics speak for themselves but there is one act that has had very little, if any, coverage since the event. Immediately after winning and falling to the ground, heaving with sobs, to be mobbed and buried by his team-mates, after a couple of seconds he pushed them off. He got up and quickly went to the Belgian team to shake hands and offer commiserations.

In a career that has already thrilled those of us who have dreamed of a British victory at Wimbledon, or indeed any grand slam, for decades, this is a moment that I will treasure more than any other. At a time when he could have concentrated purely on celebrating an achievement he had dreamt of since he and his brother were children, he made sure he recognised the efforts of the individual he had just beaten and the team who had lost their own opportunity to make history. That is the measure of the man and the real mark of a truly great champion. Thanks, Andy.
Andy Leslie
Southwater, West Sussex

Davis Cup success shines a spotlight on tennis as a team sport. All round the country club players participate in league matches. It’s a sport for all ages: the four-woman team at our last match (we won) had a combined age of more than 250 years. But the après-match conversation ran along familiar lines. Why aren’t more young players coming through? The LTA needs to take some responsibility.
Norma Clarke
London

• Following the GB tennis team’s magnificent achievement of winning the Davis Cup after 79 years I am wondering how the honours committee will decide what awards to give them. Given that the captain of the English cricket team that won back the Ashes after a gap of only 18 years was awarded an OBE and the rest of the team were all awarded MBEs, I would calculate that Leon Smith must be due a knighthood and all the team members CBEs.
Geoff Bunce
Harpenden, Hertfordshire

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