While the LTA ties up the loose ends of its top-tier recruitment process, which is expected to reach a conclusion next week, those lower down the ladder are in a state of inertia.
Key decisions about the future of British tennis are on hold until those in the running — Paul Annacone, Carl Maes, Nigel Sears and Jeremy Bates, among others — have their positions confirmed, but one man, Mike Walker, knows in which direction he is heading.
The former national training manager at the LTA has gone backwards to move forwards by setting up an academy at Bisham Abbey, Buckinghamshire, the original home of the Rover LTA school that nurtured the country’s top juniors in the mid-1990s. Win Tennis, as the initiative is known, is gathering kudos and, most important, players at a handsome rate. Established only in September, those on board include Lee Childs, the British No 13, Matt Smith, a 22-year-old of potential who rose from No 765 to No 305 in the ATP world rankings last year, and Tim Henman, who uses it as his British training base.
Martin Lee, the British No 6, was on board until Monday, when he announced his retirement, but is expected to remain in a coaching capacity.
With Andrew Richardson, the former Great Britain Davis Cup player, as head coach and John Hicks, who has been associated with the cream of British tennis for 25 years, also involved, Walker has pulled off a coup and the LTA should take note.
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“Bisham is one of the best facilities in the country and has a history and tradition in tennis,” Walker said. “We are building an environment that people can enter into at the age of 3 and never have to leave. They can go through the mini-tennis programme, the performance squads, the junior academy, the senior academy and hopefully on to the international squads.”
Confirmation of his intent comes with the fact that Walker has just secured a deal with the Bucks Indoor Tennis Centre in High Wycombe, which will provide four more indoor courts from January 1, taking the total to eight indoor and seven outdoor. As well as providing on-site housing for players, Walker intends to arrange schooling, through personal tutors, for any player who requires it. Win Tennis also operates an academy in Wrexham, where 30 full-time players are based.
Lee, a pupil at Bisham in its heyday under the leadership of Ian Barclay, the Australian former coach of Pat Cash, is well placed to comment on the potential of the new project. “For me, it’s like coming home,” he said. “I loved it here. The atmosphere was great, the training was top-class, the surroundings were beautiful. I wouldn’t change my childhood for anything.
“It’s early on, but Win Tennis definitely can be something really good. It takes time to establish a new centre, but I’m really excited that it’s going to go somewhere, especially at the moment because there’s not that much else around.”
Neither Lee nor Walker has been given any indication by the LTA of the access that they may have to the National Tennis Centre, which is to open in Roehampton, southwest London, in February.
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While it is not ideal that players and coaches remain in the dark about the precise function of the facility, which is destined to be the centrepiece of the LTA’s new blueprint, Walker believes that the main problem will be finding the British players — there are 30 men and 30 women in the world’s top 1,000 — to sustain it. “Do we have enough players to fill it? That’s a very good question,” he said. “Do we have enough girls to fill it? In a nutshell, no.”
He predicts that players will be based at the 20 International Performance Centres (IPCs) that the LTA is aiming to establish by 2008, of which Bisham hopes to be one, rather than at Roehampton, rendering the National Tennis Centre more of a training facility that players can dip into on a needs-must basis.
“I don’t think they [the LTA] are clear yet on how they are going to run it,” Walker said. “They will have top-quality coaches, sports science and technical support and a lot of the best players in the country will have access to training there. But I don’t think it’s going to supply what Queen’s Club does — a training base for 30-40 players — I think it will be a place for the top players to go to for three or four days before a tournament. It will be more of a resource and support centre than an academy — that’s how I understand Roger [Draper, the chief executive of the LTA] wants it to be.”
Despite his reservations about the National Tennis Centre, Walker believes that Draper is the man to make it work. “Roehampton is something that he will make the most of,” he said. “Roger’s gone on record saying that he didn’t want it (during his previous stint as LTA director of development), but it’s there, it’s been built, it’s a £40 million tennis centre and he’ll be working out how best you use it.”
British tennis should hope that, by the time Roehampton throws its doors open, the LTA’s vision of its future is as clear as Walker’s.
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Sum totals
£40m
Spent on the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Roehampton that is to open in February
22
Number of courts (six indoor, 16 outdoor) that the NTC will offer
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£25.5m
Donated to the LTA this year by the All England Club
0
British women in the world’s top 100