As chief executive for the Economic Policy Centre think tank, Dan Lewis is used to debating weightier matters than sport, such as government fiscal strategy and global energy resources.
But his private passion is playing and watching tennis, which has motivated him to produce an independent study of the game in Britain: Rethinking Tennis For The Big Society.
As predictable as the rain this fortnight, his paper calls for a major overhaul of the sport in this country, especially of the Lawn Tennis Association.
The main man: Murray remains Britain's only real hope of a Grand Slam honourHe seeks to tackle the reasons behind the failure to grow tennis in terms of the grass roots and of producing elite professionals, despite the huge financial resources at the LTA’s disposal, and to explain how one links with the other.
He uses some eye-catching phrases, not least the assertion that Wimbledon’s profits are a ‘resource curse that has made incompetence possible’. The lack of progress compared to money pumped in is described as the ‘paradox of plenty’. Not everything in his paper is discouraging, such as the discovery that players are drawn from wider social backgrounds than many think.
Robson (left) and Keothavong are the standout Brits in the women's gameLewis has many constructive ideas, his basic thrust being that the sport needs building from the bottom up, and he charges that parks tennis has been ‘actively neglected’.
He proposes a 90 per cent cut to what he says is a £13.3million spend on professional tennis by the LTA, and calls on the government to offer taxpayer funds to alternative organisations in future.
He concludes that the status quo is ‘unacceptable. It’s high time for a radically fresh start. The Williams sisters could never come through in Britain because the barriers to entry are too high.’
This report will go down like a lead brick at the Roehampton HQ (which he calls a ‘white elephant’) and not all of it is spot on. It is nonetheless a compelling read.
Find it at: economicpolicycentre.com. Cameron is an avid tennis player After David Cameron’s cameo at Queen’s Club 10 days ago, when he visited an outside court to support James Ward in the quarter-finals, you wonder if the tennis-playing PM will be at SW19 this fortnight.Or perhaps his deputy, Nick Clegg, another keen player, will go. Cameron (right) has been diplomatic to date about a one-set match he is said to have played against the Lib Dem leader at Chequers, apart from vaguely recalling that he won.My impeccable source tells me that it took place last November and that both of them got so into it they eschewed the use of anything so wimpish as a tiebreaker.Cameron eventually ran out an 8-6 winner, despite the left-handed Tory being slightly technically inferior. It was, apparently, highly competitive, and Cameron was very pleased to have won. How to serve this alphabet soupHow telling, and faintly sad, that the decision of ATP Tour chief executive Adam Helfant to step down at the end of this year received barely a smidgeon of media coverage when it was announced a week ago.
This event being deemed so un-newsworthy says everything about how little impact he has made for his astronomical salary and bonus package, said to be in excess of £1.2million last year, and of how over-rated the position is in the first place.
Tennis muddles along as a reasonably buoyant global sport and has been blessed of late by an especially strong player group at the top of the men’s game. But it can never remotely fulfil its potential until there is unified governance over the alphabet soup of the rump ATP Tour events, the Grand Slams, the WTA and the International Tennis Federation.
The truth is that it matters little who replaces Helfant, unless he (or she) can bring about a more unified approach. This is also in the interests of the rank-and-file players, whose incomes have failed to match increases in other sports over the past 15 years.
It is a near-impossible task, but let us hope the new ATP leader is someone from within the game, who at least enters with a clear understanding of their labyrinthine politics.
You always read of the car-crash cases of women’s tennis players who go off the rails, but for most, it is not like that. Those I met at WTA functions this week, such as Britain’s Heather Watson and Laura Robson, seemed to be well adjusted and having a great time. In the main, they are a credit to themselves and their sport. Brit of the week (An Andy-Murray-free zone)Away from Wimblemania, 15-year-old Eleanor Dean from Yorkshire, coached by Martijn Bok, Laura Robson’s former coach, claimed her first professional title, a $10,000 event in Holland.
