Former Top 5-player Tim Henman says British tennis needs to change its approach to junior tennis if it's going to produce more top-level pros. Andy Murray is the only British male ranked inside the Top 100.
"I started playing professionally in 1992 and I'm getting a bit bored of people saying, 'We've got to be patient,'" Henman told the Daily Telegraph. It's not about numbers here. It's not about saying, 'We can get a million juniors playing.' You have to get the right ones—and I'm not sure we do such a good job of that. If I was going to be involved, you have to go back to the seven-, eight- and nine-year-olds, into the clubs and schools. You have to take the ones who are in the first 11 in football, the first 15 in rugby and the first 11 in cricket, to get them playing tennis. They are the ones who have the athletic ability and hand-eye co-ordination. If you have a good structure of coaches, then you'll see more players coming through and you'll have a better crop to work with."