[Ouragan]

Our model really isn't that enviable, plenty of top 100 players all right who own the MM tourneys, but hardly a grand slam contender since Noah.

I'm glad we have JWT, Gillou, even la Monf, they all have good personalities to boot, but potential wise I'd prefer Muzzug.

[fast_clay]

many different systems will work... of course the system you put in place has to be a sound one to begin with, but, the main things are that a) you stick with that system for a solid period of time and dont chop and change, and... b) it has the belief of all participants top to bottom... the second point would lend itself well to making transparent where all funding goes... whether this already happens at the lta i am not sure...

again, i'd refer to the spanish systems where if you check the new itf futures program for 2010 you have pro futures tournaments already listed 10 of 12 weeks... what is known about the spanish system is that they have a high dropout rate of juniors... but, this matters not because inside the tennis culture there is a massive volume of players so the drop out rate is negated...

what is enviable of this system now, is that you have a long list of stars competing on the world stage week in week out... so, if you dangle a carrot at the end of the junior path, you get this cycle where you drag the best right through, and, it is a hard, battle-weary road... part of the problem in over investing in junior talent is that you can sometimes reward mediocrity and players are too comfortable by the time a player needs to break into tour main...

another pleasing byproduct of a system like this is a player like oscar hernandez, who, at 29, breaks the top 50 for the first time... the culture again is seen to be rewarding players 18+... you cant tell me a 3 set battle with The King would not teach a budding 17 year old spaniard a thing or two... its a great culture... not only that, spain becomes a feared place to travel to pick up the odd point... it has an aura, and so, you get mighty fields exclusively iberian gaurenteeing that many home grown prospects pick up points... so, yeah, rewarding senior players equally is right and just and is very transparent... its not rocket science...

the lta would be well served in investing in a few crack teams of tournament organisers at futures and money tournament level that enable players to compete for cash week in week out... this would play on the strength of the great britain itself, where, distances travelled between major cities is minimal compared with most tennis playing nations... more money should be invested here... british tennis have a good figurehead in murray, not only would he help serve to inspire players to play on for longer, but, it would also be wise to get him onside and publicly say 'yeah, here is a system that rewards hard work, no matter what age you are... talent and hard work have no age...'

[Action Jackson]

Originally Posted by DrJules

Sweden with only around 9 million people is never in the long term going to sustain it at the previous level, but Spain and France have more than 4 times the population. Realistically if they produce 1 grand slam winner a decade and at least 1 player in the top 10 (current decade)they are doing very well given their population

There are lots of reasons for that, it was one a special generation and then they got lazy, expected it to happen all the way through without looking at the latest trends, in addition to a federation that doesn't have much cash.