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Archives for March 2010

British failings need to be properly identified

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Jonathan Overend|15:08 UK time, Monday, 29 March 2010

The report from the All-Party Parliamentary Tennis Group investigating the spending of the Lawn Tennis Association failed to deliver the knockout blow that some were hoping for, but it contains enough intrigue to suggest the inquest is far from over.

The group chaired by Baroness Billingham was asked by the Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe to interview the LTA management, Sport England and various independent critics to establish whether tax payers' money is being used wisely.

In addition to the annual Wimbledon millions, the LTA receives money from the National Lottery via Sport England and is currently one year into a four-year contract worth £26m.

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Davis Cup review must not paper over cracks

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Jonathan Overend|09:31 UK time, Thursday, 18 March 2010

John Lloyd's resignation was no surprise after the humiliating result in Lithuania.

It wasn't necessarily his fault - and he held the respect of the players, some of whom went out of their way to fight his corner - but it was his team.

He was the captain of a wealthy British side which lost to a team of kids from the tennis non-league. He had to go.

But if the Lawn Tennis Association chiefs think that will be the end of the matter, scapegoat identified and slaughtered, they should be mistaken.

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British tennis stunned by events in Vilnius

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Jonathan Overend|15:43 UK time, Monday, 8 March 2010

Like a dazed party of stags, coming round the morning after the night before, the Lawn Tennis Association high command bravely fronted up today here in Vilnius.

The wreckage was not of broken bottles or body parts, the stench not of alcohol poisoning, but British tennis had effectively been stripped bare, roped to a tree and beaten with branches.

Defeat to Lithuania had been total humiliation. At least the bosses admitted so. "It's like being in a very bad dream," LTA chief executive Roger Draper told BBC Sport. "Along with lots of other British tennis fans [we are] sharing the humiliation of losing to Lithuania."

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No more excuses for GB

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Jonathan Overend|14:39 UK time, Thursday, 4 March 2010

The expression "into the unknown" is overused in sport, sometimes to prepare us for a fall, sometimes to disguise poor preparation.

Here in snowbound Vilnius, the British Davis Cup squad arrived via a budget airline and a rickety yellow bus for their Euro/Africa Group II match with Lithuania.

This may be the tennis wilderness but it is not "the unknown". There should be few surprises this weekend and, therefore, there can be no excuses.

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Are the Grand Slams set in stone?

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Jonathan Overend|07:26 UK time, Monday, 1 March 2010

Balancing the importance of history with the demands of the future - tradition with progress - is one of the great challenges in tennis. The sport may have moved with the times with big changes to racquets, surfaces and scoring systems, but essentially the game remains true to tradition.

Just take the major championships.

Wimbledon dates back to 1877 (remarkably soon after the invention of the sport, when you think about it) and the Championships of the United States began in 1881. A French Championships began in 1891, allowing international competitors from 1925, while the Australian Championships started in 1905.

The venues have changed (from Worpole Road, Forest Hills, Stade Francais and Kooyong), even the cities have changed - the US event began in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Aussie Open moved from Adelaide to Brisbane before settling in Melbourne - yet the countries have remained constant.

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