Colin Fleming urges Tennis Scotland to work harder on improvements
Back in December, the 34-year-old Colin Fleming became the British Fed Cup coach, helping the team to shine at home in February and reach World Group II Play-Off. Colin is a former top-20 doubles player and the winner of eight ATP titles from 19 finals, retiring in 2017 to become the National Coach for Tennis Scotland. The Linlithgow native had a chance to play with Andy Murray five times, reaching the final in Montreal five years ago together and he also competed for the British Davis Cup squad for six years, winning ten out of 12 matches overall!
In the last ten years or so, Colin has witnessed some stunning results from the Scottish players led by Andy and Jamie Murray, although he is saddened over the fact there were no new indoor tennis facilities built in Scotland between 2006-2016. Thanks to Judy Murray, Leon Smith, Fleming himself and others, things are looking much better in the last couple of years, with Scotland hosting Davis Cup ties and Challenger in Glasgow, giving the youngsters a chance to get involved in tennis and watch their best players in action. Still, Fleming things there's a lot more to be done to keep the tennis legacy in Scotland alive, on every level of competition from the youngest age groups.
“The fact is tennis here used to be of interest for two weeks of the year but Andy, in particular, caught the public’s attention and we have momentum,” said Fleming. “I think it is very important, off the back of a golden generation of professional players and high profile coaches, led by the Murrays – Andy, Jamie and Judy – and captain Leon Smith, myself, Elena Baltacha, Jamie Baker, Gordon Reid in wheelchair tennis, that we capitalize and build on that. I think it is encouraging to see the work that has been done to align all the main parties, in terms of Tennis Scotland, governing bodies, the Murray family and Judy through her foundation, SportScotland and the Scottish Government. That joined-up approach is something we haven’t necessarily had before and that is exciting. I do think that access to major events is an important piece of the puzzle.
At the last Davis Cup tie, against Uzbekistan, we had 3,000 schoolkids in to watch a practice session and that is phenomenal, showing just how inspirational that can be, so we need to look at ways of bringing major events here. Tennis Scotland hosted the Challenger event in Glasgow last year and that was the biggest professional tournament we have hosted in this country, in terms of prize money, and I know Tennis Scotland would love that to return because for kids to even be ball kids would be nice.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2P5KYIh
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