Davis Cup debate distracting from real British tennis issue

It has been a turbulent week for British tennis, culminating in disppointment for Andy Murray, who lost to Mardy Fish in the second round of the Miami Masters Series, a title he won last year.

John Lloyd resigned from the Davis Cup captaincy over a week ago and levelled a parting shot, surprisingly, at Murray, rather than the organisation that failed to produce players capable of beating opponents ranked over 200 places below them.

Lloyd said: "Call me old-fashioned, but when is it a convenience, not a privilege, to play for your country?"

"If England's team had failed to qualify for the World Cup, would it be OK for Wayne Rooney to turn around and say that he didn't think he'd bother playing for the international team until they had some proper matches, or a team worthy of his time? Of course not."

Good example, but a bad analogy for Davis Cup. The World Cup only comes around once every four years and the footballing world makes way for qualification matches and the main tournament itself. Yes, it adds extra fixtures to the players' schedules, but they are not so distracting as Davis Cup ties, which can take players half way around the world onto a different playing surface just days before or after major tournaments.

When Murray played the tie against Poland last year he was still nursing a wrist injury which he picked up shortly before at the US Open. After the tie, which they lost despite the British number one winning his two singles rubbers, Murray had to take six weeks off from the tour to allow his wrist to recover.

"I have to do what is best for my career" - Murray

The World Cup is the pinnacle of a footballing career, Davis Cup isn't the equivalent for tennis, an individual sport in which players are judged on individual achievements: Grand Slams. Murray's every move on the journey towards that goal is scrutinised. Would the critics who have questioned his dedication to the Great British team also question his decision to play for a Davis Cup team that stood no chance of winning the trophy if he were to end his career without having won a Grand Slam? Almost certainly. And there is no sporting commentator who would deny Roger Federer the label of the best player in the game's history because he has never won Davis Cup.

It is not suprising then, that Murray was disappointed with Lloyd's comments. "I would rather he was a little more supportive," the world number three told BBC Radio Five Live. "I have to do what is best for my career."

And what is best for his career is focusing all his efforts on winning a grand slam title, a feat that only four different players have achieved in the past five years. Playing Davis Cup is not the same as it was in days of Lloyd and McEnroe (another critic of players who don't represent their country). It is a potential distraction that players can ill afford as the demands on their bodies and minds are higher than they have ever been before.

Jamie Murray made a very pertinent point via his Facebook status: Who's going to be the next davis cup captain I am asked...surely there are more important things that need addressed I answer. The dispute between Andy Murray and Lloyd has distracted attention from the real issue here - the fact that the LTA is still failing to produce top quality men.

Judy Murray didn't comment on the Davis Cup debate but did criticise the LTA's method for producing champions. She told BBC Jersey that she has not been asked for her input into the current LTA system, adding: "I certainly would tell them if they asked me." She believes that the LTA teaches children how to play tennis but not how to win, which has been evidenced in Davis Cup performances by the likes of Dan Evans and Alex Bogdanovic.

There is an odd dynamic in the relationship between Judy Murray and the LTA. She blogs for the website and is an ambassador for parents involved in the LTA system, running questions and answer sessions and offering advice. Yet she is not shy in being openly critical of the organisation, which is prompts one to question the relationship the LTA has with its employees.

One last observation on the LTA. I regularly use Carnegie Tennis Centre in Leeds, one of the LTA's high performance centres, according to its website. I recently turned up for a game with some friends to find the net on the court (and another) had been lowered. We went to ask the staff for a net winder and were met with some umming and aahing.

A member of staff turned up first with what turned out to be the wrong tool. When he found the right one, he didn't know how to use it. We eventually, just about, got our net to the right height but had already lost 15 precious minutes of our £15-an-hour court time. I should say that we were offered the opportunity to stay on beyond our two hours for an extra 15 minutes to make up for this. There is often litter on the courts at Carnegie and the netting dividing the courts is either ragged or non-existent.

Make of that what you will.

Happy Women's Day!

I have unintentionally developed a feminist theme to this blog in recent posts and find myself compelled to continue the thread for at least one more item. Conveniently, it is also International Women's Day today. How fitting.

The British Davis Cup team lost to Lithuania at the weekend, leaving them teetering on the brink of relegation into the Europe/Africa Zone Three a.k.a tennis obscurity. It was a devastating loss for the British men, minus Andy Murray, as Dan Evans succumbed in five sets to Laurynas Grigelis in the fifth and final rubber with the tie hanging in the balance at 2-2. At 521 in the world, Grigelis is ranked 269 places below Evans. I needn't go on.

Unsurprisingly, the media swooped down on this result like vultures on a rotting carcas. The Metro kindly decided to spread the British Davis Cup team's humiliation across it's third page.

"We only have bad news today," wrote Ross McGuiness in explanation of the newspaper's diversion away from oddly shaped vegetables and animals doing unusual things on page three. "And it is this - Britain is rubbish at tennis."

"If there was any doubt about our credibility on the tennis court, it was blown away yesterday by the mighty sports nation that is... Lithuania."

This is the point at which I must don my Germaine Greer hat and make a small protest on behalf of the girls. Our men, minus Andy Murray, may be rubbish at tennis, but our British women certainly are not.

We currently have two women inside the world's top 100 - Elena Blatacha and Katie O'Brien - and a third, Anne Keothavong, just outside, but only because a serious knee injury forced her to take time out the sport in the same year that she achieved a career high ranking of 48. Baltacha and O'Brien are both enjoying the best period of their careers at the moment and would no doubt contest the statement that "Britain is rubbish at tennis".

Heather Watson and Laura Robson might also have something to say about that. And with good reason. Both junior Grand Slam champions, 17-year-old Watson recently beat two-times Grand Slam semi-finalist and former world number seven Nicole Vaidisova, while 16-year-old Laura Robson beat a top 30 player for the first time in her career this year while playing Hopman Cup with Andy Murray. It's hardly fair to lump the women in with the men and heap the same scorn on them.

Incidently, as far as reaction to the Davis Cup loss goes, Greg Rusedski tweeted yesterday: "Cannot believe we have lost to lithuania in davis cup. Unbelievable." Anne Keothavong lent her support to captain John Lloyd via Twitter, saying she still thinks he's a "top bloke" and Lloyd's brother David had some interesting insights into what he believes has gone wrong in men's tennis. In an interview with the BBC, he called for LTA chief executive Roger Draper to resign. Draper issued a statement in which he announced that there would be a review of the performance and result.

Here come the girls

Since my last post, I've had some information about the first women to umpire men's matches. I contacted the ITF to find out when female officials first started working on the men's circuit. The ITF informs me that they have consulted with colleagues at the ATP and they believe women started umpiring men's matches in the 1970s.

It may have taken three more decades for Wimbledon to offer the same prize money to both men and women, but it seems that strides were being made towards equality in officialdom relatively early on. Georgina Clark of Great Britain and Woodie Sublet of the USA were significant umpires of the 1970s, according to the ITF.

"I see no reason why they should have women in the chair."

- McEnroe

With a little more research I discovered that Georgina encountered the wrath of Mr J P McEnroe in her time as an umpire. A newspaper article from 1981 states that she gave the American a warning in his match against Brian Gottfried at the Stella Artois Championships at Queen's Club.

McEnroe was not exactly an advocate for progress at the time. "I don't know that I like the idea of women umpires," he said after the match. "I see no reason why they should have women in the chair."

"It's hard to get upset with a lady umpire. In general I think it's better to have a man dealing with men," the New Yorker added. It seems his comments fell on deaf ears.