Wimbledon 2023: Juniors offer 'optimism' for future of British tennis, says LTA
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Roger Federer, Iga Swiatek and Ash Barty are among those to have won junior Wimbledon - and Britain's Henry Searle (pictured) is well placed to follow in their footsteps
Wimbledon 2023 on the BBC |
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Venue: All England Club Dates: 3-16 July |
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All 14 Britons in the men's and women's Wimbledon singles draws were eliminated before the third-round stage this year - but in the junior ranks home hopes have thrived.
British tennis has come under recent scrutiny with 11 of those senior 14 players relying on wildcards as they were not ranked high enough for direct entry.
But in the junior category, the most Britons since 2000 reached the second round - seven girls and five boys - and Henry Searle is in the semi-finals.
For British tennis' governing body, the LTA, it is cause for "optimism".
This year at the All England Club a record-equalling three British juniors reached the singles quarter-finals: Ranah Stoiber and Mika Stojsavljevic in girls' competition and Searle in the boys'.
"We're pretty strong at the moment at developing a group of boys that could turn professional," Martin Weston, a national coach at the LTA for the men and boys, told BBC Sport.
Wolverhampton's Searle has not dropped a set at Wimbledon this year. Should he win his semi-final against American Cooper Williams on Saturday he will break into the world's top 10.
The boys' tournament has not had a British winner for more than 60 years. Stanley Matthews - son and namesake of the legendary former former Stoke, Blackpool and England footballer - was the last to achieve the feat in 1962.
Wimbledon's last British female junior winner was Laura Robson in 2008, but Weston said the current group could go on to have bright futures.
"On the girls' side there is a real crop of very talented young players that are looking like they might go into professional tennis straight after they've finished schooling and education," he said.
Stoiber, 18, is in her last year of junior tennis with plans to start playing professionally and Weston said she is "one of the better juniors in the world", while Stojsavljevic, 14, entered Wimbledon ranked 282 in the junior world rankings and will finish it inside the top 100.
"We're right to be optimistic but always in a guarded way. We're not getting carried away because juniors is just an opportunity to bring the best kids in the world together and see how good they are."
Mika Stojsavljevic (left) and Ranah Stoiber (right) are two of the sports brightest prospects
Evans' comments a 'call to arms'
Earlier this year, British number two Dan Evans said that Emma Raducanu's US Open win in 2021 had "papered over the cracks" in British tennis.
He argued that while there are plenty of juniors playing tennis, the support is not there to help them make the leap up to the seniors.
With Raducanu injured, no British women played in the singles at the French Open and Weston said that being good at junior level does not bear great significance.
"It doesn't matter how good you are in juniors, what matters is how many players we have in Grand Slams in the main draw and qualifying - that's how we measure ourselves," he said.
As for Evans' comments, Weston said they were intended more as a "call to arms" for the youngsters.
"Dan is passionate about British tennis, he takes accountability and really cares. When he makes a comment about the state of our players it's probably a call to arms rather than digging out anything in particular," he said.
"He knows how difficult it is to transition from junior to senior. He cares and he's interested.
"Dan would look at Henry [Searle] and say 'come on then, I did it, you can be better than me' - he wants to turn up at Grand Slams and see more British faces and that's exactly what we want."
Senior players, including the likes of Evans, Andy Murray and British number ones Cam Norrie and Katie Boulter, will often train with the juniors and offer advice and feedback at the National Tennis Centre and Weston says that having that accessibility is like "gold dust".
"Our pros are unbelievably generous - when we do training camps with the juniors, they're training side by side, they're in the same locker rooms, restaurant and physio room.
"The seniors drop a rope latter down for young players to climb up."