British tennis is shit!!!

[murraymints4brighton]

GB reached an all time low today as they lost to Lithuania in the Davis cup. Lithuania have no player inside the top 200 in the world and the venue used to host the tie had a roof so low you couldn't play lob's.

Disgraceful showing. Again we had the better players and we lost and now face a relegation play off that if we lose, we drop into the 4th tier, the lowest level of tennis were we will meet such tennis delights as Zimbabwe.

Seriously, on a good day, I could have beat Lithuania's tennis MASTER Laurynas Grigelis, ranked 521 in the world. There playing budget is about $400,000 per year, ours is around 42 million, they have 3 players RANKED as tennis players and the rest our teenagers of a poor standard so if I was Lithuanian I would be in the running to play, we have over 10.

Tennis in this country continues to decline as we continue to splash the cash on utter TRIPE.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Well done John Lloyd. Inspiration is his middle name, you know.

 

[clarkey]

We now play Turkey, who just lost to Ireland.

 

[Husty]

We tried to give the youngsters a chance and f***ed up

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

On the other hand, SCOTTISH tennis is on the up!

 

[willyfantastic]

to be fair, some universities in america have bigger budgets for their tennis programs than the uk has. you wonder why murray buggered off to spain?

 

[beorhthelm]

what do you expect, tennis is the preserve of snooty middle class types who's children go on to pursue more certin careers. theres probaly only a couple of hundred professional players that make a living from it, so who can expect otherwise?

 

[murraymints4brighton]

to be fair, some universities in america have bigger budgets for their tennis programs than the uk has. you wonder why murray buggered off to spain?

Murray went to Spain because the LTA didn't have the funding when he was training to become how good he is now, that was in the late 90s/ up until around 2004.

He now trains at the National tennis center in Roehampton, London, that we spent all this money on and are producing f*** all. I will be very surprised if a university in America spends more than our yearly budget, very surprised, However it still remains that £45,000,000 is being spent on SOMETHING and producing nothing.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

In the end though, tennis in the UK is still all about polite middle class kids being enroled in poncey tennis clubs as a weekend out of school activity. There's probably some monstro idiot savant Rooney-type out there on a sink estate who is the BY FAR the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen. But he'll never get to even touch a tennis racquet or know how he could have ruled the tennis world. Oh well.

 

[murraymints4brighton]

In the end though, tennis in the UK is still all about polite middle class kids being enroled in poncey tennis clubs as a weekend out of school activity. There's probably some monstro idiot savant Rooney-type out there on a sink estate who is the BY FAR the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen. But he'll never get to even touch a tennis racquet or know how he could have ruled the tennis world. Oh well.

Yes, and the LTA have to find those kids using that MASSIVE budget. They need to stop building their fancy tennis centers, make public courts free and get some sort of Community setting up. We at the moment charge £35 per hour for one to one coaching.

 

[Statto]

Tennis has allways been a minority sport in this country. The only time the majority of the British sporting public watch tennis is during Wimbledon fortnight, or if a British player is doing unexpectedly well in another grand slam. Thats why we arre so bad at it.

 

[Billy the Fish]

In the end though, tennis in the UK is still all about polite middle class kids being enroled in poncey tennis clubs as a weekend out of school activity. There's probably some monstro idiot savant Rooney-type out there on a sink estate who is the BY FAR the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen. But he'll never get to even touch a tennis racquet or know how he could have ruled the tennis world. Oh well.

That's the story of british sport, it's the same with Cricket and Rugby. That's why football will always be head and shoulders the No. 1 sport, because the others are nowhere near as accessible

 

[pasty]

On the other hand, SCOTTISH tennis is on the up!

Surely you mean BRITISH tennis

 

[Trigger]

Darts is better, you get proper ATHLETES there.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Darts is better, you get proper ATHLETES there.

Tried and trusted SCOTTISH athletes in darts also

 

[The Wizard]

Shame your so shit at football, rugby, cricket ect then.

 

[cunning fergus]

Not true, on tonight's new the BBC Reporter just referred to World No 1 Andy Murray. Well done Andy.

Unless of course its just proof (if proof was needed) that the reporting integrity of that organisation is shit and about time licence feepayers got a refund.

 

[Cloughie]

In the end though, tennis in the UK is still all about polite middle class kids being enroled in poncey tennis clubs as a weekend out of school activity. There's probably some monstro idiot savant Rooney-type out there on a sink estate who is the BY FAR the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen. But he'll never get to even touch a tennis racquet or know how he could have ruled the tennis world. Oh well.

Top post. This is essentially the underlying problem with British sport. So often at trial games for either Cricket or Rugby the initial question that is asked is 'Which school do you go to?' (This is something I have experienced 1st hand). Totally wrong but until it is corrected then the class system will still survive and thrive. Shame really.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Not just British tennis.

ALL tennis.

 

[Icy Gull]

Top post. This is essentially the underlying problem with British sport. So often at trial games for either Cricket or Rugby the initial question that is asked is 'Which school do you go to?' (This is something I have experienced 1st hand). Totally wrong but until it is corrected then the class system will still survive and thrive. Shame really.

England managed to win a World Cup at Rugby which is identical to what our football team have achieved. Not sure rugby or cricket are full of the middle classes any more? I have seen 1st hand selection policy at England trials at under 16 rugby and it was definitley a matter of how good you were, absolutely nothing to do with your school or background