Time to go British, pleads Pickard

As the search goes on for a new director, a leading coach gives LTA some strong advice

Since he plays the sport, Prime Minister Tony Blair's sombre new year message might profitably have embraced a comment on the state of tennis in this country. Not only do we seem to be up the creek without benefit of a paddle, but also minus a canoe. Unless there is someone out there with the ability to walk on water, undignified sinking may be the only prospect.

The Lawn Tennis Association enter 2003 having lost their head lad on the playing side, performance director Patrice Hagelauer, our only competitors of world class, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski, are crocked and out of next week's Australian Open, while Davis Cup captain Roger Taylor is preparing to face Lleyton Hewitt and Australia early next month with a pair of players ranked 447 and 459 in the world.

The lone Briton with direct entry into the Australian Open is the Kiev-born Elena Baltacha, and this only by courtesy of a newly implemented wild-card exchange scheme between the LTA and Tennis Australia. Such is the state of Britain's cupboard going into Melbourne: a 19-year-old whose heroics at Wimbledon in the summer were subsequently eclipsed by a worrying recurrence of illness. Now, however, Baltacha's health is restored, though she embarks on the new season seriously short of match practice.

"Her ongoing tonsillitis having been resolved with removal of the tonsils in November, bacteria could no longer find a berth there," explained Baltacha's coach, Alan Jones. "But after surgery she could not play for nearly three weeks and didn't hold a racket until the second week of December." It was eventually discovered that the antibiotics being taken for the tonsil problems were damaging Elena's liver, which led to fatigue because it was not functioning properly.

"Last year is a minor miracle," said Jones. "She would keep coming back and competing, and then get these intense bouts of fatigue. But it showed her fighting qualities. We have to be careful not to overpush her, but what we must not lose is the fire and aggression she has. If Elena retains her degree of health and does not get injured, she will do well. In the modern game you need weapons, and she has those weapons. I would be very disappointed if she didn't get inside the top 100." Baltacha, Britain's No 1, is currently ranked 157.

The wild-card exchange, which will see a couple of Australian youngsters awarded places at Wimbledon this year, had also offered the British No 4, Anne Keothavong, direct entry into the qualifying tournament for the women's singles at the year's first Grand Slam. Keothavong, ranked 236, has seen a marked improvement since teaming up with Tony Pickard last August. Pickard, a coach with a fine track record (Stefan Edberg, Petr Korda) and admirably indifferent when it comes to hiding lights under bushels, said: "Anne has been moving in the right direction lately and the LTA can't get away from the fact of the improvement in attitude and form of the young lady."

Pickard was asked to look after Keothavong by Keith Wooldridge, in charge of women's tennis at the LTA, which is remarkable in itself, since the Nottingham man, twice our Davis Cup captain, has always been frank about the shortcomings of that organisation. "There has been a little warming to me at the LTA since I started to help Anne," said Pickard.

That warming process may not yet have extended to an invitation to sit at the table, but at least he has parked himself under the verandah of the pavilion. In the complicated gavotte which constitutes tennis politics in Britain, this may be significant – or possibly not. Pickard's name was one of the first to be thrust forward when Hagelauer decided to call it a day at Barons Court, and though Pickard is without question interested, he insisted: "I am not applying for the job. They would have to come to me. If they did that, I would listen to what they have to say, but until that happens you can't make any comment."

Unwillingness to fill in a job application does not inhibit Pickard when it comes to offering firm advice about what needs to be done. "The LTA have got to get stuck into finding somebody quickly, not wait until April, which is what they are talking about. Patrice is supposed to carry on until then, but my sources of information tell me he is going to be in Australia next week with the French Davis Cup team. The LTA have to take the attitude that he is gone, otherwise the next four months will be wasted.

"There is going to be a loss of direction and attitude, and that you must not have. There will be a tendency to panic because the media will be looking for someone who isn't there initially. This is something that has been got wrong so many times that they have to be sensible and ask some advice."

And Pickard's advice is to buy British next time. "I feel strongly the next director should be from Britain because, realistically, if you bring in somebody from outside it takes five years to find out what goes on here. But some of the things that have been put in place are good, and I don't think it is going to take 10 years before we see something coming out of them."

For instance, Pickard surprisingly glimpses a glimmer in the bleak landscape that is British women's tennis. "With Baltacha, Keothavong and Jana O'Donoghue, the LTA hopefully have a chance to get somebody on the Tour by the end of this year. That would be an enormous step forward, because one girl would pull the others along with her, so long as it is monitored properly."

Though understandably upbeat about Baltacha's prospects, Jones is withering about the state of the game here. "The problem is a general lack of competitive depth. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and we have done far too much for players in Britain. We have to guard against being the social security of the tennis world.

"The lack of raw material is what has frustrated me. I don't mind being under the cosh as a coach, but I ain't seen that much talent to make me say, 'Oh God, I have missed the boat with them'."

Staying on the coaching side is what Jones intends to do, firmly rejecting the connection of his name to the Hagelauer job. "I am a players' man, I am not walking the steamy corridors of Queen's Club wearing a tie."

Meanwhile, Taylor, also connected to the director's post via a website quote, was quick to stress that, although he wants to remain involved in British tennis, he is busy enough right now with the Davis Cup captain's job, which currently involves preparing popguns to tackle howitzers. Alongside that task, paddles and canoes seem irrelevant.