On a wet Ghent morning after a magnificent night before, reality kicked in like a mule for British tennis. As Andy Murray and his team-mates savoured their moment, there was no hiding either their immense satisfaction at having won the Davis Cup for the first time in 79 years, or their despondency over the future.
It may be that, because of a packed schedule, Murray plays only one tie in defence of the title in 2016 – against Japan in March. He could come back if Great Britain are still alive in the competition towards the end of the year, but there is a sense the job has been done. Whether Leon Smith, the captain who has lifted the squad from ignominy to glory in five years, will be at the helm is also uncertain. He has ambitions to coach on the Tour.
Disturbingly, it also sounds as if the Lawn Tennis Association chief executive, Michael Downey, does not have the total confidence of the game’s leading players, most importantly Murray.
The structure Downey is trying to build, from the ground up, may well bear fruit eventually. In his defence, he has much damage to repair after years of complacency and poor judgment that resulted in top-end profligacy. But there is no sign that, since his appointment in September 2013, the Canadian with the ready smile properly gets it.
There is, for example, no convincing push to capitalise on the deeds of the nation’s best player since Fred Perry – nor has there been since Murray won Wimbledon two years ago. Where are the indoor courts in a country that for many months is drenched and cold? Where are the training partners at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton? Why is Murray’s face not plastered over every bus in London?
Euphoria can hide a thousand ills. Underneath the glittering surface, there is precious little to celebrate after beating Belgium 3-1 on Sunday, and all these players – Murray, his brother, Jamie, young Kyle Edmund, not so young James Ward and the ever-loyal doubles standby Dominic Inglot – struggled to disguise their frustration.
Murray, whose final lob of David Goffin put a sublime full stop to the narrative here on Sunday evening, expressed it best. Did he expect British tennis to exploit the deeds of the team over the past few days? “I hope so but they need to act on it now,” he said. “It’s no use doing it in 18 months. Start now. It should have started before today. It’s time to make some positive changes so that things get better.”
He said he had not spoken to Downey since the first round of the cup in Glasgow in February. “Sometimes I feel like you waste time because nothing ever gets done. I also don’t want to waste my time talking about stuff. I’ll have a lot more time to try to help or give back to the game. But just now, I’ve got to concentrate on trying to win as much as possible.
“I don’t get to see what is going on in schools in terms of the grassroots level but there are a few people who I am extremely close to [his mother, Judy, most obviously], and I respect their opinions. They believe a lot more could be done and should be done to capitalise on all of this success in British tennis over the last five or six years. We may never get a better opportunity to do that than now.
“I don’t think the participation is really going up. I think the performance stuff at Roehampton – whether you agreed with having the National Tennis Centre or not – is there, so use it. There is no one to practise with, which makes things a bit frustrating because you want to have the best possible practice and training to prepare for the biggest events. We often have to travel abroad to practice.
“I don’t know where the next generation are. I feel like I am saying ‘I don’t know’ a lot, but I genuinely don’t know. I don’t speak to any of the people about that who are in a high-up position. I haven’t really spoken to them about anything.
“It is a shame because – regardless of whether or not we had a load of players at the top of the professional game – we always had good juniors. We had junior No1s, we had juniors competing for grand slams on the guys’ and the girls’ side. Now it seems that isn’t really happening.”
Since the US Open in 2013 when four British boys entered, and all lost in the first round, there have been none at any of the slams. Murray said: “Katie Swan is a very good young girl but there are not loads coming through. It is not to say there won’t be players who will break through.”
Jamie agreed: “I hear from people who are in the know – and I guess throughout the country – that [grassroots development] is not happening as much as it could be. I have said it a million times: it is a shame that Andy has done such amazing things in his career and for tennis in this country – and of course we have won the Davis Cup – but it has not been capitalised on. He is the one who has captured the interest of the people, not just this weekend but throughout his career. Now we have got a good chance to make the most of it. We have the opportunity to make tennis really popular in this country.”
Smith has not renegotiated his contract with the LTA, although Downey, who regards him as the best Davis Cup captain in the world, is keen to keep him. Smith, however, was quick to emphasise that winning the Davis Cup was not down to the LTA. “No, that’s a separate thing,” he said. “This isn’t an LTA thing. This is a Davis Cup team. It’s about these guys. It is a team, it is down to what these guys do on court.”
Edmund is the one player familiar with the current setup at Roehampton. “I have probably spent most of my time at the national tennis centre,” he said. “That is pretty much my base when I go back to the UK. But for me there are no players to hit with. So people will come in to hit from various centres.
“The way it has worked out this year I have been on the road a lot so when I have gone back it has been for a week, maximum two weeks. It is manageable. But it is nice to know there are players there. It is healthy to have players around as well, it makes a good atmosphere. It is good for the spirit. It is good for the game as well. When you are just one person in a centre or one of just a couple of people it is no good. It is definitely something that should be backed – more players playing at the national tennis centre.”
Murray added: “I went to the National Centre to practise for a couple of days after Shanghai, I was there on a Monday at like two, three o’clock and then on Tuesday, the same time, there was not one person using any of the indoor courts and not one person in the gym. I took photos of it because the place cost like £40m and there are no people. No players in there practising in there. It was like empty. There is nothing going on there at all. And, you know, it doesn’t necessarily have to be performance players, but there’s just nothing going on. And it’s such a shame, like, walking in there and there’s nobody in there.”
Smith said: “There are enough people at the LTA to try to ensure that [winning the Davis Cup is not wasted]. That is Michael’s job – to try to come up with a strategy that best captivates all the people who will have watched at the weekend, and watched the whole year unfold. The important thing is to act on it. It is not about what happens in the next few days.
There will be plenty of coverage – it is about how we reel them in and keep them in. That has got to be at the forefront of their minds and hopefully they do it well, because it would be a shame not to capitalise. With what Andy has done in his career, there should be a legacy.”
Murray will now train his sights on the Australian Open, which starts in eight weeks. “I’ve been very close there a number of years. I haven’t won there but I think I’ve often played my best tennis.I really like the conditions, the courts. That’s obviously my next big goal. I haven’t seen Amélie [Mauresmo, his coach] for four months or so. I need to push on with that, spend as much time on court as I can to work with my coaching team on the weaknesses in my game.”
He has another small matter on his mind, of course.
“I don’t know what is going to happen with Kim and the birth yet so I can’t say 10% certain. But, if everything goes to plan, then Davis Cup in March against Japan will be my first tournament. Next year if we were to win the first round, the quarter-final is a very tricky time, with the Olympics as well. So that will be something that we will need to talk about.”
