One area of success for the LTA is the performance of juniors such as Laura Robson, above, and its report said 31 players are on track to reach the top 100, compared to 10 in 2006. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images The Lawn Tennis Association is to focus its attention on improving the sport's grassroots over the next three years.
It is four years since the governing body published a blueprint for British tennis following the appointment of Roger Draper as chief executive. It began with the words: "Our new vision for British tennis is 'Winning'. This means British players winning slams, ATP, WTA, ITF and Tennis Europe tournaments and, ultimately, the Davis Cup and Federation Cup."
The tone of the update, presented at today's AGM, was somewhat different, with the spotlight turned on the mass participation side of the sport rather than the elite players.
The report read: "The approach to high-performance player development has been embedded and is now sustainable, subject to continuous improvement and appropriate funding of the high-performance network. With these foundations in place, the LTA is now in a position to direct more of its time and resources towards enabling the sport to grow the number of weekly participants."
The LTA has spent a significant amount of time and money over the past four years investing in the structure of the game in Britain at the top level. There are now four international high-performance centres, 15 high-performance centres and 120 satellite clubs, as well as the flagship National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.
However, Andy Murray aside, the facts make largely uncomfortable reading, with Britain having the same number of top-100 singles players – two, Murray and Elena Baltacha – as in 2006, while this year there was the embarrassing Davis Cup defeat by Lithuania.
Men's tennis has shown a noticeable decline over the past four years, and the LTA admitted "perseverance and patience is needed to make sure that promising juniors are supported in the most appropriate way".
Junior tennis is one area where the governing body can celebrate significant progress, with victory for the 17-year-old George Morgan in the prestigious Orange Bowl last weekend the latest in a string of noteworthy performances by British youngsters.
Laura Robson, Heather Watson and Oliver Golding have marked themselves out as potential stars and today's report claimed 31 players are on track to reach the top 100s, up from 10 in 2006.
Two other notable inclusions were a pledge to support tennis facilities in parks as well as improving communication, which were areas criticised by parliament's All-Party Tennis Group following an investigation earlier this year.
Figures in the British Tennis Annual, also published today, show the LTA spent £65.3m in 2010, up from £64.5m last year, with a record £31m coming from Wimbledon. The biggest outlay was on growth and development, up by £800,000 to £19m, while the amount spent on supporting and developing talent actually fell by £700,000 to £13.4m.
Peter Bretherton was elected the new president of the LTA, replacing Derek Howorth, who retired at the end of his two-year term. Bretherton was Howorth's deputy and that role will now be performed by Cathie Sabin, who becomes the first woman to occupy the position.
Regarding today's report, Howorth said: "This was the right time to review the blueprint, and the main board is absolutely committed to it as a long-term strategy for transforming British tennis. I'm very proud of the progress we have made over the past few years, and I wish Peter every success during his presidency."
Bretherton added: "Over the last few years we've laid the foundations for growth and now we can build on that by focusing our attention on getting more people playing and enjoying our sport, as well as continuing our work to identify and support the development of talented youngsters."
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