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Murray calls for British funding overhaul

Andy Murray has had a run of success this autumn © PA Photos

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Andy Murray has called on British tennis chiefs to make life harder for players by stopping their funding once they turn 18.

British tennis is one of the best funded in the world, but there is a dearth of talent competing at the top of the game. Murray is the only British male inside the top 100, while it is only slightly better in the women's game.

Murray has made it to three grand slam finals and is confident of taking his game forward next year, but is frustrated by the system in the British game.

The world No. 3 quit Britain to train in Spain as a teenager and feels we could learn from other countries who are churning out good players.

"Do you know that in Spain, at 18, your funding stops?" he said in an interview with the Daily Mail. "From there, you get nothing that you cannot earn for yourself. We're funding guys to 27, 28 - while in the most successful tennis nation in the world you're basically on your own. Maybe there's something in that.

"My mum has just come back from Russia, looking at the National Tennis Centre that has produced this great run of players, six in the top 30 women at the moment. So what great set-up do they have? Sixteen tennis courts and that's it. Not even particularly good ones, she said.

"Yet you look at the people Russia's centre has churned out and they are pretty much taking over the women's game. There is nothing about the place, really. So it is not down to facilities, either. It is about having drive and dedication and a designated formula for success."

Murray also feels there is too much conflict in terms of coaching players in Britain and feels officials must adopt a consistent approach and stick to it.

He said: "When I went to Spain, from the best players to the worst players we were all taught the same way, all given the same drills. They had a structure and they stuck to it. Go to our national centre and you've got 10 different nationalities all coaching a different way. If we don't get the results straight away, we panic and change direction.

"There is no confidence in our technique, no sense of sticking to an idea, no identity, no consistency in the way we teach tennis, so naturally there is no British style."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.