91Èȱ¬

you couldn't be more right. I watched the first 2 sets of the Goodall match and the way he through away the second set tie-breaker was very disappointing 5 consecutive unforced errors on the forehand side to throw away an opening.

although the idea of third tier tennis is not an inviting prospect, on the evidence of today's performance it is where we belong without Murray. I hope I'm proved wrong over the next 2 days, but i doubt it.

On another note that you pointed out why do we not tailor the courts to our reserve players, this was commented on when boggo was still playing. If we are going to win the tie we need more than just andy's singles effort

We, Tennis Inverclyde, came with a party of 30 youngsters from Inverclyde today to watch the two singles. The youngsters, the majority of which play at Inverclyde Tennis Clubs had a hugely enjoyable day and we are grateful foir the opportunity to watch Davis Cup tennis so near to home.

Like veryone else we missed Andy Murray badly.

The problem of British tennis in depth is nothing new and has been the case for at least a decade. If this were a business, the board of directors would have been let go well before now as their strategy clearly isn't working. A more radical overhaul of all things tennis is needed, including image, direction, particiaption in schools, better facilities, more government support etc etc. What will it take for some real changes to be made?

The standard of players isn't his fault, but can there be a more uninspiring captain than John Lloyd?

Ask McEnroe to do the job. That would shake them up!

"either Poland at home or Belgium away"

It would be Poland at home, as Belgium has sufficient strength in depth to win all the singles rubbers in that tie.

In that case, Andy Murray, assuming he plays, would win both his singles rubbers (Poland's highest ranked singles player is in the 180s currently). Between those rubbers, he would probably partner Ross Hutchins or Jamie Murray against Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski - the other winners at the Madrid Masters last October.

Someone else will have to win a singles rubber.

Jonathan, how many words have you written in this blog to tell us something that we didn't already know? The standard of mens tennis in this country is appalling, and if I was a male wanting to become a british tennis player, I would be looking for another country to teach me how to do it, as all the millions that the LTA make each year is having absolutely no benefit whatsoever in producing a world class tennis player.

The LTA doesn't have, and has never had, a system of identifying talent in juniors. They always group them according to year of birth, then give all the support and funding to the oldest players, i.e. those born in January. Looking at all the current data for juniors, this produces a talent ID error rate of around 60%.

There are many other problems with tennis in Britain, but this is such a glaringly obvious one that it is criminal the LTA refuse to do anything about it, despite people begging them to do so for decades.

Giving funding and training to our best junior players, rather than those who are age-advantaged, would at least be a good start.

It would be nice to believe that posts such as these are read by the LTA.

Bit like the government, they seem to live in an Ivory tower!

Jonathan what actually happens to these posts...ignored, deleted I presume, surely you don't do something useful with them i.e. forward them on to the LTA?

I took my young boy to play tennis, he got pretty good at one point, county etc. Pity that we had to stop all the coaching because of the cost!

We could not afford to allow him to play the sport, is it any wonder the pool of talent is so small when the grass roots is of this nature...still!!!

A dire heart fan of Tennis is so depressed. I still think we can win this tie but we got to get rid of the players we have got. Keep Eaton, Murray for the singles. Eaton will get a lot more confidence under Murray winning a match and play with nothing to loss. Then get the third rubber with Jamie Murray and Ross together and then the reverse singles. I think that just makes up the British team. Thats the best line up so we dont overuse Andy, Eaton will get more convidence watching Murray we will then have 2 Dobbles specialist then the reverse singles to go with that. Just about makes a team. Then invest our best youngesters into different countries make them better and bring them back in 5-8 years then hopefully they will inprove British Tennis and then we could have 3-4 players inside the top 100 and have Andy Murray at the same time thats what I think we should do with British Tennis.

I agree that the surface should not be optimised for Andy Murray (even when he's playing).

Grass would have been the best choice - if the ITF would approve that at this time of year!

I completely agree with Andy and Eaton in the singles and Jamie and Hutchins in the doubles.

The fact is, despite Jamie's poor form, we do have two top-50 doubles players. We should field this pairing and expect to win our doubles ties. There may even be value in taking them to one side and suggesting they tour together to develop their partnership.

This would mean we're not burning out Andy and we can rely on him to take his two singles matches. That's three wins which means the tie is won.

Eaton has shown that he is a big game player. His ranking is low because he doesn't seem able to get through "minor" matches. I could see him winning his reverse singles this weekend. This is the current gen player the LTA should be looking to develop because he has the right mindset and that's something that's almost impossible to teach - just ask Boggo!

"when the world-class players are absent there simply isn't the strength in depth to cover."

Jonathan - who are Britain's other "world-class players" apart from Andy Murray?

I'm sure we'd all love to know!

@ChrisJewell

You say that if it was a company the Directors would have been sacked by now and a radical overhaul is needed.

The thing is however its the constant attempts at Radical overhauls that are part of the problem. Improvements take time to happen and you have to give it time. The last overhaul is still fairly recent and already in the Womens game its had significant improvements and the new system is working wonders and is a massive success. And hopefully it will only improve as its focussed on the next generation.

The men haven't yet shown the same improvement, there has been some but nothing anywhere near the womens improvement. However men take longer to develop so any improvement will take longer to show an improvement and develop

Overend is just about as good as all the other commentators and media pundits, failed know nothings. The members of the LTA are all old hangers on and have no idea how to get young players interested and developing. They should all be appalled.

As for Murray not playing AGAIN, thank goodness he is Scottish and not British he is a complete waste of space

No, GB Tennis struggles even with Murray!!! All he can do is win 2 games, that's not enough. We need to spend time coaching players with the right attitude and determination, thats why I think it's a good idea to give debuts to Goodall and Eaton. We need to bring on 3 or 4 players capable of breaking into the top 100 and forget the underachievers of the last few years. One player can't do it alone, Murray needs backup.

The point about choosing a surface to favour Murray is not that he can win more easily on hardcourts. It's the fact that if you ask him to play on grass or clay in the middle of the hardcourt season (or even viceversa), he is not going to come, and understandibly so.
The main job of the captain should be to make Murray play: If he does, Britain's chances are around 50% for any tie; if he doesn't, they are around 0.

And why has the 91Èȱ¬ seen fit to cancel broadcast - even on the red button facility - of the final two rubbers today (Sunday)??
We rarely get the chance to see any British players - whatever their capabilities or ranking - and the 91Èȱ¬ is absolutely rubbish at using their exclusive Davis Cup rights to show GB tennis, proved again today.

During the Davis Cup commentary I was really annoyed by Andrew Castle's comments about Andy Murray. He implied that Murray was faking his illness because he didn't want to waste his time by playing in the Cup tie. Does Castle have access to Murray's medical notes by any chance?
Then Castle criticised Murray for not turning up to the tournament as a spectator.
Unless Castle is privy to some inside info. about Andy's illness I suggest he keeps such derogatory remarks to himself and concentrates on the tennis.
Andy is not a product of the British system. If Castle wants to criticise I suggest he looks at a training programme which, so far, has failed to deliver in spite of the millions thrown at it.

I agree MrsFrosty

I couldn't even find the result on the red button on 91Èȱ¬. The problem the 91Èȱ¬ will say is the ratings - if we are already beaten, they won't get the audience. But they should be showing the matches. There are a lot of youngsters who never get to see any British tennis on TV save Andy Murray.

Re my earlier comment, I don't see the term radical in action over the past decade ... more jobs for the boys.

I gather that one salary in the LTA equals all the funding given to Scotland over a year (Mark Pechy's comment on Sky). That says plenty (or rather very little) for us up here.