Tennis Scotland is still failing to capitalise on the legacy of Andy and Jamie Murray’s success at the top of the sport, mother Judy has claimed.
Cameron Norrie is Scotland’s highest ranked singles player at 29 in the world, while most recent challenger Jacob Fearnley is languishing at 159.
But it was college tennis in the United States that gave them the grounding for their relative success.
“It is very disappointing where we’re at now, given the massive shop window that we had,” Murray told The Saturday Show on BBC Radio Scotland, referencing Andy, who was world number one at singles and brother Jamie who did likewise at doubles.
“Think when Jamie and Andy were going through the best years of their careers, it established a huge interest and a huge fan base across the country.
“We had a lot of Davis Cup matches, GB matches that were at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, for example.
“And it gave us a world-class competition for people in Scotland to be able to go to without having to trek down south. And the shop window was there – it could never have been any bigger than that.”
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Now, though, Murray is “being bombarded by emails and messages on Instagram from parents who are basically saying this is being all left to the parents that there’s just not a good pathway that works”.
She points out that there is only one regional tennis centre in the central belt, at Stirling University.
“Somebody today was telling me that their child, who is one of the best in the age group across GB, actually has no training program – there are no training camps,” she said.
“There is no funding for taking them to tournaments – it’s all up to the parents to do this. The regional center is closed for the school holidays, which doesn’t make any sense. It’s the only one in the UK that’s closed for the holidays.
“That’s when the kids are around, it’s when you can bring everybody from across the country together, because you don’t have school to worry about.”
Murray thinks tennis is still seen as a rich person’s sport that is difficult to access.
Many local tennis clubs are in residential areas where it is difficult to build indoor facilities, while many schools have scrapped their tennis courts to such an extent that “there’s only about 12 state schools in Scotland that have tennis courts now”.
“Tennis Scotland should invest in clubs and coaches in local areas and not be operating a centralised system where they try to bring everybody to one base and spend all their money on full-time staff,” Murray argued.
In reply, Tennis Scotland said it “has a positive and ambitious strategy, which has led to record investment in facilities, schools tennis and our performance pathway, which ensures young players now receive high-quality localised coaching within their district as part of the wider LTA Performance strategy.
“We have a proud record in player development, including helping two juniors on our programmes reach the world’s top 10 (ITF junior rankings) in recent years and will continue to support and motivate hard-working coaches as they help young players fulfil their potential.
“We have record numbers of courts being built, both indoor and outdoor, and record club membership, which has grown year-on-year across Scotland.
“We will also be making more announcements soon regarding further significant investments for tennis in Scotland.”
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Esta notĂcia foi originalmente publicada em: Fonte original