JAMIE MURRAY SLAMS STATE OF BRITISH TENNIS AFTER 'UNACCEPTABLE' FRENCH OPEN SHOWING
Jamie Murray has claimed British tennis has suffered from "huge underachievement forever" as he claimed it is "unacceptable" to celebrate having only three singles players at the French Open.
Cam Norrie was the only Brit to win a singles match in Paris but he was down and out in the third round. With Emma Raducanu recovering from surgery there were no British women in the singles at a Grand Slam since the 2009 US Open - there are none in the top 100 - while ten players failed to come through qualifying.
Wimbledon gave the Lawn Tennis Association nearly £50m last year from profits from The Championships. But Jamie, who has won seven Grand Slam doubles titles, said: "I would say it is a huge underachievement forever because we get a hell of a lot of support every year from Wimbledon and getting that nice fat cheque. It's about numbers at this level and we have just never had that forever. It is decades or more of what I would call underperformance.
"We have Andy at the top for a long time. That will come to an end soon. Dan Evans and Cam Norrie are obviously well established on the Tour and Jack Draper is coming up. On the girls' side, it's not like we have always had people in the top 10 or 20 or 30.
That's just the situation. I just think that there is no reason why we shouldn't be having 10 or 15 players, men and women, in the main draw and qualifying of this tournament. We celebrate when we have two or three players, which is unacceptable. It is not good enough for us as a Grand Slam nation to be turning up at these events and having such a small number of players competing. With the funding that some of the players have at their disposal, we should be doing better.
British No.2 Evans claimed Raducanu had "papered over the cracks" with her shock New York triumph. "Evo is probably right," Murray added. Emma had this whirlwind two weeks out of nowhere but that's not the reality of where we are at. Something needs to change."
Norrie admitted it will be "back to the drawing board" at Wimbledon next month despite reaching the semi-finals last year.
The British No.1 said: "I think it's nice that I played well last year and there's a lot of upside there but it's a new year it doesn't mean anything. So back to back to the drawing board."
First the world No.13 will have to find accommodation in London after moving to Monaco. "I'm going to rent on Airbnb during the grass court season," he said.