Davis Cup

The recent defeat suffered by the British Davis Cup squad at the hands of that well-known tennis powerhouse, Lithuania, has rightly elicited no small amount of wonder on the part of a British sporting public. It has come to expect very little of the nation’s tennis players, but it seems that heads will roll after this latest in a string of embarrassing defeats.

John Lloyd would seem to be first in line for the guillotine, and as the only British captain to have presided over five successive Davis Cup defeats. The issue of sourcing his replacement, though, is a thorny one. Andy Murray, the lone shining light of British tennis, has recently voiced his opinion that the British players be given a say in the selection process, stating his view that "It's very important the players are comfortable with who the captain is."

While this is true, and it would be folly to select a captain with whom the star player is at loggerheads, letting players pick their own captain brings the words “inmates” and “asylum” rushing to mind at an alarming speed. A team that has underperformed as badly as the British Davis Cup squad does not need a friendly coach. They need a rocket up their backsides, or else we face further extending our record-breaking losing streak.

Davis Cup failure cannot be attributed solely to poor coaching, particularly when it has become as much a fixture of the tennis calendar as Wimbledon in recent years. Sustained sporting success, or failure, takes root in the development of young players. Britain’s poor Davis Cup record is testament to the fact that this is just not happening in this country—even Murray spent his formative years learning the game in Spain—and the British number one has weighed in on this topic.

"Right now, it's difficult because of the National Tennis Centre. All the best young British players, when they get to 15, 16, they go train at the National Tennis Centre. Not every single one but 90% of them.

“If I am a young British coach and I have done a great job with a junior and when they get to 16 they get taken away from me, I don't want to be a coach any more."

The Murray method, it seems, would see localised centres of excellence, where the coaches who have taught their young protégés from an early age, could continue to develop their players under the guidance of national coaches. It seems logical that this method would yield greater results than the present system, with less cost. Or, if that doesn’t work, we could always invite an eccentric like Vladimir Romanov, Hearts’ Lithuanian owner, to act as an advisor to the LTA.