• Wimbledon

Under-fire Draper not thinking of quitting LTA post

ESPN staff
June 27, 2010
Roger Draper is under pressure to produce the 'next Andy Murray' © Getty Images
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Roger Draper has refused to quit his position as the Lawn Tennis Association's chief executive, despite Britain's worst ever showing at Wimbledon.

Draper has come under heavy criticism from former players such as Mark Petchey, who believes British tennis is going nowhere despite investment of over £80 million in recent years. The facts support Petchey's claims, with Andy Murray the only Briton to reach the second round at SW19, and only Elena Baltacha joins the Scot in the world's top 100.

Adding fuel to the fire is the distribution of wildcards, which saw world No. 172 Alex Bogdanovic overlooked in favour of world No. 253 Jamie Baker. Britain's most in-form player (after Murray) James Ward was also snubbed, yet Draper insists things are moving in the right direction.

When asked by BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme if he considered resigning, Draper answered: "No, we are in this for the long-term.

"As a leader in sport, what you now need is business continuity and to continually improve what has been happening across the sport.

"We are four years into a 10-year transformation of the sport. The reason we made the changes a few years ago was to stop what happened on Monday and Tuesday, and that takes time.

"I know from my experience at Sport England in terms of distributing lottery money that it takes a number of cycles to get the players through.

"What we are now doing to get more kids playing tennis in schools will pay dividends. We will get success and we have got to be ready for that."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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