In my last piece I referred to the pressure to win a major tournament that faces Andy Murray. He is the lone realistic hope for British success and the prospects of him winning a grand slam are currently slim due to the proximity of star players Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Murray's current Atp ranking of 12 is a full 228 places ahead of the next Brit, Jamie Baker, who is one of only three other players to be ranked under 300. Britain's poor showing in the world rankings is put in to context by the success of other nations. The men's top 50 features eight Spaniards, seven Frenchmen, five Argentinians and four apiece from Russia and United States. Six other nations have at least two players in the top 50.
Murray Lawn
Britain's Davis Cup ranking of 21 owes much to the efforts of retired top 50 players Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski and there is little opportunity of the team progressing to the elite, especially as Murray understandably places more point on personel events.
The situation in the women's game is apparently worse, although there is a greater pool of talent. Britain has a Fed Cup ranking of 42 and has no players in the Atp top 50 (a list dominated by Russians and players from eastern Europe) but hope does exist straight through the improvement of Anne Keothavong (ranking 96th), Katie O'Brien (112th), Elena Baltacha (144th) and Melanie South (153rd).
There are 25 separate countries represented in the women's top 50, suggesting Britain must wait for new talent before providing other top player. Unfortunately there does not appear to be other Murray (Us Open junior champion in 2004) on the horizon.
Britain's Lawn Tennis association is taking steps to reverse this decline, putting £10m into a task to cultivate young talent, although the products of that policy will clearly not appear for some time.
Great Britain's Great Tennis problem
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