From the look of things, the future looks promising for British tennis. I have spoken on Andy Murray looking good and he has defeated Roddick now to reach the finals in San Jose. Two very important aspects in raising the stature of a game are

1) heroes (which some one like Andy Murray can prove to be), and,
2) the infrastructure and facilities needed for promising young players to develop their games to reach the next level.

Ever since Roger Draper was appointed Chief Executive of the LTA, things have been looking up. A blueprint for British tennis has been prepared and plans have been laid out and are being acted upon in a structured way.

In a piece on tennis-x, Lynn Benerbaum wrote a few months ago:

His first endeavor is to build up a solid leadership team. So he launched a recruitment website for a series of LTA executive positions, including the heads of men’s and women’s tennis. The site attracted more than 25,000 visitors, and thousands of applicants. The association’s goal is to have new names and faces in place by the time the LTA’s new National Tennis Centre at Roehampton opens at the end of February.

A major goal is to import top new coaches to groom young English talent, in what The Times of London called “The LTA’s Foreign Aid Package”. The LTA has already sanctioned a three-year deal for Brad Gilbert worth more than 1 Million Pounds which includes coaching And Murray. Now Draper is trying to persuade Paul Annacone to lead the men’s game. If he accepts the position, he will work alongside other high-profile recruits such as Gilbert and Lundgren, who will put the new restructuring plan of the British game into action.

The investment in Murray with steps like getting some one like Brad Gilbert to coach Murray is starting to reap benefits now. The stern test will come in Wimbledon this year. Some thing like Henmania for Murray wouldn’t be unlikely. It is unlikely that Murray will win Wimbledon this year though and he will have to deal with the expectations and the pressure of fans, media more now than ever before.

Where infrastructure is concerned, looking towards the Monte Carlo Tennis Academy is definitely a step in the right direction. From BBC Sport:

The Monte Carlo Tennis Academy, launched in 2006, is now providing one of the platforms from which British tennis hopes to develop the next Andy Murray and Tim Henman…

…The players spend seven weeks of the year at the Monte Carlo Country Club with the rest of the year spent training and playing in tournaments all over the world, from Australia to Florida, Sunderland to Wimbledon.

Wimbledon lies at the heart of tennis and it is unfortunate that tennis hasn’t had a major champion from Britain for what seems ages. The need for a better system which will be effective in providing champions in the future is being acted upon. Hopefully, it prove effective and reap long term benefits for British tennis and tennis on a whole.

Further reading: Draper answering a few questions of BBC, fans.

Andy Murray has done a lot of things in his young tennis career till now. He won the US Open boys title as a kid, was Great Britain’s youngest ever Davis Cup player, reached the third round of Wimbledon 2005 after being given a wild card, has won 1 ATP title already (San Jose, US beating Hewitt in the final in February 2006) and has been on the improve in his young career - his grand slam career record so far for instance.

In the loss against Nadal today in the 4th round of the Australian Open, Murray had amazing reach and showed great court presence. The serves and the reach exist for many big guys but the court presence is much rarer. Both players weren’t playing to their best and had poor return of serves and committed quite a few unforced errors. Till the middle of the fourth set, Murray was giving Nadal as good as he got and was even hitting more winners than Nadal. After that, Nadal’s fitness and experience was the difference as Nadal won the fourth and steam rolled through in the fifth (even though the games were very close).

Give it a couple of years and the Murray game could mean that he has an edge over many opponents. Murray could do a lot of damage when Wimbledon comes along even this year though I am not sure that he would have it in him to win just yet. If he carries on the way he is developing, there is no reason why Andy Murray will not be a legitimate challenger at Wimbledon for many years to come - he has the perfect game for it. He should also do quite well at other grand slams and tournaments in time as well and is definitely a top 5 material.