Britain needs more players like Andy Murray: Tim Henman
Tennis is one of the most popular sports in Britain. This is why one of the largest, oldest and most prestigious tournaments in the world of tennis is held in London on an annual basis. Therefore, it is surprising as to note why so few professional tennis players spring out from Britain. They have all the facilities needed to play the sport at a professional level, but what exactly is going wrong?
The highest ranked player from Britain at the moment is Andy Murray. He is a Scottish player and is the number one in tennis in the United Kingdom. Currently, he is ranked number four in the world but his highest career ranking has gone up to the number two spot. This made him the highest ranked British player since Fred Perry who was the world number one in 1934, which shows that Britain has not seen a great player for quite some time now. Andy Murray has played a major role in building up the pride of tennis in Britain. He has not won any Grand Slam as yet, but he has fought his way up to the finals at the 2008 U.S. Open and the 2010 Australian Open where he has lost to Roger Federer on both occasions. Murray is an amazing player and still has a lot of time on him to catch up with the greats of the game. If he keeps on working hard, Andy may be able to win a few Grand Slam titles in the future.
At Wimbledon 2010, Murray raised the hopes of Britain when he qualified for the semi-finals. Unfortunately, he was brought down by the lethal Rafael Nadal, who went on to win this year’s championship. If Murray had made his way to the final at Wimbledon, he would have been the first British tennis player to have done so ever since 1938.
Britain is demanding more players like Andy Murray to come and play for them as they do not feel that it is appropriate for Britain to lag behind like this in the world of tennis.
Tim Henman, who has been one of the most prominent professional tennis players from Britain, has realized the need for more people in the tennis department. Henman retired from his career as a tennis player in 2007 after he helped Great Britain defeat Croatia in the Davis Cup. He was the first player from the United Kingdom to have reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon since Roger Taylor in the 1970’s. During his career, Henman reached six Grand Slam semi-finals and was ranked number four in the world, making him one of the most successful tennis players from Britain.
Due to the ongoing drought, Henman has directly turned to the highest tennis officials regarding this issue. He has declared that it is an embarrassment for Britain to be only sending one player, Andy Murray, through the second round of Wimbledon after having spent half a billion pounds on tennis over the past twenty years.
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which is the governing body for the game of tennis in Great Britain, has been approached by the former tennis star, Tim Henman. He has talked to them about the disturbing decline of British tennis and wants them to work harder to develop some more and improved professional tennis players.
Henman does want to blame anyone directly for this downfall, but when talking to the LTA’s Chief Executive Roger Draper, he said that it was necessary for them to keep an account of the poor results in British tennis. Experts have claimed that the LTA needs to improve its performance before it is too late to do so in the near future.
Britain has waited too long for a tennis star to fall from the sky and make them shine in the world of tennis. Andy Murray has gotten close to doing so but putting all the odds on one player alone is not wise for Britain. Hence, they need to work harder in order to produce a champion from their lands.
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