LTA turn to UK Sport to reverse fortunes

By Gerard Meagher, Sportsbeat

THE Lawn Tennis Association have turned to UK Sport in a bid to reverse their ailing fortunes after British tennis suffered one of the worst summers in its history.

BIG BOSS: Roger Draper is the chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association (Getty Images)

Tennis has become the 28th sport to undergo scrutiny from UK Sport - the agency responsible for delivering elite success for the vast majority of Great Britain's Olympic disciplines - out-going chief executive John Steele confirmed today.

Last month, Great Britain suffered their worst Wimbledon in history with Andy Murray - who reached the semi-finals - the only home player of eight to advance past the first round.

And while unlike the 27 other sports, tennis will remain unfunded by UK Sport, Steele revealed it will be picked apart in a bid to bring about more British tennis success.

"Tennis has approached us and when we next produce another review, tennis will be added to the rest of Olympic and Paralympic sports that are part of this process," said Steele, speaking at UK Sport's latest Mission 2012 review.

"They have approached us and it shows that we are not brandishing a big stick, wanting to know how money is being spent. It's about sharing performance practices and being open and honest about where they think they are and how they can learn from us and move forward.

"Mission 2012 is open to all sports and the LTA approached us which we think is very positive. It's about them learning from all the other sports about performance.

"Every sport is very good at at least one thing and why not share that between sports. Therefore, I think it's very shrewd of the LTA to look at what the process is all about?

"We agree with every sport a target so we'll sit down together with them and look at what they should try and achieve and that will progress year upon on year.

"This is purely about profiling their high performance system and if there are any things standing in their way then they must be honest and address those problems."