Source: www.daviscup.com
Given that in Australia we take pride in performing to our best in sport (and all forms of life), we have a situation where Australian Tennis has been in decline for roughly 20 years which is not a very good outcome to say the least. Every few years it seems that only one or maybe two juniors go on to succeed at the highest echelons of the tennis world.
Expanding on an idea from a work colleague and having played tennis to a reasonable standard myself, perhaps a solution can be found to consistently produce talented players at the grass roots level. In each Australian state or territory tennis is played every Saturday by thousands of players. The competitiveness of these competitions can be quite intense. Teams from a club are graded on ability and they compete against other clubs. There are elite leagues called Pennant Competitions which feature teams across tennis districts (several clubs within a specified region) in which players are often paid a small amount to represent their “club” in order to win the pennant.
Some districts are stronger than others and may have more than one club in the competition; however participation often depends on sponsorships and ability to form a team. Juniors on the other hand are identified early and are often invited to elite “training schools” to develop their skills for preparation for the world tour (if they are good enough). This is currently based on the model used for swimming in Australia which works quite well for that sport.
Unfortunately it appears that when our junior tennis players come of age they are usually left to fend for themselves whereas other countries players appear to have their support structures in place to monitor the progress of their player and the player is able to perform to a high standard on the tour.
So how do we correct this situation? The “swimming” model does not appear to be working for tennis, given that there has been no consistent representation of players in the Top 10 singles for Men since Hewett and Rafter while for the women’s Samantha Stosur is the first player to grace the Top 10 for a few years.
Most other sports in Australia have a national league (or competition) of some sort. This improves the skills and enhances the competitive spirit of the players involved. To improve the game it needs to be done at the grass roots level and then filter through to the higher levels (i.e. Pennant). Pennant competitions are run as per the normal tennis season each year and are generally the highest based club competition in each state.
So what about having a league where the winners of each state based Pennant competition played each other each year. This competition could be called the Australian Tennis League (ATL) and would feature the Men’s and Women’s winners from each league (6 states and 2 territories) to play a round robin tournament over two weeks in late December to early January at Melbourne Park.
The Winner is first past the post for each of the Men’s and Women’s Competitions with a cash prize of say $100,000, Runners-up get $40,000 and third place $25,000. The best 8 male and best 8 female players based on results from this competition then get the opportunity to play-off for a wild card spot at the Australian Open during Qualifying week. It is probably worth noting that the usual wildcard spots remain for those players who want to choose that path to playing the Open. However the implementation of this idea will result in one less spot in both Men’s and Women’s draws being available each year.
The aim is to try to enhance competition within Australia and develop the mental strength of our promising future stars by playing against hardened Pennant players on a regular basis. With the exception of Hewitt and Rafter, the players of Australian tennis in recent years have lost their spirit and toughness on court and recent results tend to show that competitiveness is lacking. The use of club based competitions should give encouragement and hopefully that competitive edge to juniors that want to progress their careers as they will potentially within reach of players who have competed in the ATL.
This is not a quick fix solution, but a solution designed to encourage clubs to develop juniors for preparation to the Pennant competition and encourage more participation at the grass roots level. It allows State Pennant winners to play in a competition with clubs at a similar level and hopefully provides enough incentive to encourage prospective players to enter the “big stage” of world tennis while maintaining some roots to their home club.
If anyone has Paul McNamee’s e-mail address please let me know, as I am quite happy to forward this idea to him. Perhaps if the idea is adopted it will lead to an improvement in Australian tennis.
