Tennis is in trouble

All hail Andy Murray.

The blessed Scot not only delighted a nation in 2013 by bringing home the first British Wimbledon crown in 77 years, but on Sunday led Great Britain to victory in the 2015 Davis Cup—our first triumph in 79 years.

While Murray has inspired a surge in British support during his ascent to World #2, it seems he’s a bit of an anomaly. According to a BBC article published two days ago, Britain is awful at producing tennis talent, and has been for rather a long time.

In the article, both Andy Murray and former Davis Cup captain David Lloyd slam the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), and call British tennis “a mess.” Murray told the BBC he “did not know where the next generation are,” and that on a recent visit to the National Tennis Centre in October, he found “not one person using any of the indoor courts and not one person in the gym.”

As an avid tennis fan, I shuddered at the news. Just where are the kids? And why aren’t they playing tennis?

Well, for a start, it’s far too expensive.

The same article says the annual Wimbledon Championships pump approximately £30 million a year back into British tennis by way of the LTA, who want “more people playing tennis more often,” according to its 2014 Annual Report.

With initiatives like the “Great British Tennis Weekend” held at local gyms or leisure centers, whole families can play and receive free tennis coaching on certain weekends throughout the year.

But what good is the odd free coaching session if club fees remain too high for a kid’s parents for the remainder of the year? When taking into account club fees, court hire costs, equipment, coaching, tennis is a costly sport. You could be looking at anything up to £500,000 by the time a child is 18 years old.

The LTA seems to be addressing the problem of cost by trying to move tennis away from clubs and into the parks, where they claim nearly 40 percent of British people play.

But surely if the next generation are the focus, the LTA needs to be in our schools, free of charge. Yes, with 30 kids in a class, I know it’s more practical to pile them all onto a football field rather than have them line up for a tennis match, two by two. And yes, it may require further funding from the powers that be. But if we want more Andy Murrays, we need our talent pool to grow exponentially to have just a few other champions to stand out.

God knows, we waited long enough for one.