Australian tennis has sunk to its “lowest point”: Hewitt
March 2nd, 2010 - 5:53 pm ICT by ANI
Sydney, Mar 2(ANI): Australian tennis star Lleyton Hewitt believes that the game has sunk to its “lowest point” in the country, saying that there was little cause for optimism in player development.
“Right at the moment it’s at its lowest point, I think. In terms of players coming through we don’t have a lot at the moment,” The Age quoted Hewitt, as saying.
“We’re looking at guys ranked 250 to 400 in the world, possibly getting a gold jacket to play Davis Cup, and that’s scraping the barrel. We’ve really got to try and make a change, and the best way comes back to the coaching,” he added.
Hewitt further insisted that while too much emphasis had been placed on largely irrelevant junior results, not enough had been done to involve respected senior figures in local coaching roles.
“I think we have struggled to make the transition from juniors to seniors. I think we emphasize junior results ways too much. I qualified for the Australian Open when I was 15 (years old) in the seniors,” Hewitt said.
“I have been fortunate enough to have won two grand slams, I have worked with some of the best coaches in the world whether it’s Tony Roche, Jason Stoltenberg, Darren Cahill. I have had the best guys around,” he added.
Meanwhile, former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash claimed the national tennis body ‘messed up a bunch of really talented kids’ while Liz Smylie, herself a former Wimbledon doubles champion, also criticised Tennis Australia for creating a ‘for us or against us culture’. (ANI)
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Tags: australian open, australian tennis, darren cahill, davis cup, jason stoltenberg, juniors, lleyton hewitt, national tennis, optimism, pat cash, player development, scraping the barrel, seniors, talented kids, tennis australia, tennis star, tony roche, two grand slams, wimbledon, wimbledon doubles
