Roger Draper: Give LTA time and we will offer up British success at the chosen level

By Roger Draper, arch senior manager of the LTA 730AM GMT twenty-three March 2010

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Waiting diversion Roger Draper says it is usually a make a disproportion of time prior to the LTA delivers success for Britain at the tip turn of tennis Photo GETTY IMAGES

When you run a sport, you have to be rebuilt to take criticism. You have to know when to talk, and when to listen. Since that unpleasant Davis Cup better to Lithuania, I"ve taken a lot of criticism, as has British tennis, and I have been you do a lot of listening. Listening to the recommendation of people concerned in all aspects of British tennis. Taking in the views and opinions of supporters and opponents alike.

This week, I"ll be articulate to the All-Party Parliamentary Tennis Group at Westminster. I"ve since my commitment, both to them and to the sports minister, to keep those discussions private, so I won"t go in to sum here.

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But it will be a genuine event to put the box for all the great things that are going on in British tennis. To mount up for the genuine swell being finished by coaches, volunteers, players and relatives opposite the country. These are people who merit apply oneself and acclaim, whose achievements are borne out by the facts.

More than half a million adults fool around tennis at slightest once a week. That series is rising year on year. That is a Government statistic.

More young kids are competing, and some-more income is being invested in the weed roots of the sport. Every couple of years, a discuss about the destiny of British tennis is reignited.

The Davis Cup better supposing that spark, but majority of the questions haven"t changed. And because would they? Getting some-more people playing, some-more young kids involved, and creation the competition some-more permitted these are all elemental to the prolonged tenure wealth of the sport. The disproportion is that we are starting to plunge in to those issues.

We are investing some-more in places to fool around tennis scarcely �10 million a year, interjection in piece to the await of Sport England.

We are targeting the await to clubs that recognize the need to open their doors to the wider community. More than 600 clubs have right afar warranted Clubmark status, that commits them to on condition that youth programmes and fostering links with internal schools.

The AEGON Schools programme has additionally finished a genuine impact. Through it, the Tennis Foundation has introduced the competition to scarcely 4,000 initial schools and since out some-more than 120,000 free tennis rackets in only over a year.

There have been alternative questions raised, about the purpose of the National Tennis Centre for example. We right afar have a centre of tennis value that any nation in the universe would envy, and no open income went in to construction it.

Since it non-stop 3 years ago, we"ve lerned 2,000 coaches at the NTC and hundreds of internal young kids make use of it each month. But not all revolves around the NTC. We"re ancillary a network of twenty High Performance Centres around the country. And any player who chooses to sight afar from the NTC will still get only the same turn of await from the Lawn Tennis Association. To a little who disagree about centralisation we have decentralised some-more than ever before.

Others have lifted concerns about the series of unfamiliar coaches concerned in British tennis. There is a identical discuss going on in majority sports, but we"ve invested millions of pounds in ancillary British coaches, and we"re unapproachable of the peculiarity of the coaches.

Is all perfect? No. The Davis Cup better has shone a sheer light on the men"s opening side. We knew 4 years ago that it was going to be difficult to fill the opening left when Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski late that we knew would shortly be around the corner. But swell hasn"t been as fast as we hoped on bringing by the majority appropriate masculine players.

That"s because I"ve asked Steven Martens to examination men"s tennis. To attend to players, coaches, and alternative experienced tennis people, and settle how we can urge in the majority high form piece of the game.

We are starting to see genuine signs of progress, in the women"s diversion in particular. When Anne Keothavong pennyless in to the tip 100 in 2008, she became the initial British lady in 9 years to do so. Since then, 3 alternative British women have damaged by that barrier. That is covenant to the new proceed we have taken and all the people involved.

The juniors additionally see promising, but we have to accept that a prolonged tenure plan is only that. A prolonged tenure plan to broach prolonged tenure success for the sport.

As Chief Executive, I"m obliged for the gratification of British tennis. That includes the men"s Davis Cup team, but it is about so most more.

And I will not concede what went wrong in Lithuania to remove the glorious work that has been finished behind home.

We should be unapproachable of the efforts of tens of thousands of coaches, parents, and volunteers, who are transforming the sport.

With their assistance we are removing some-more people personification tennis, and enjoying it.

With their await we will broach success at the chosen turn too.