British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) president Roger Draper condemned a fifth successive Davis Cup defeat as unacceptable on Monday and called for an immediate inquiry into the humiliating loss to Lithuania.
Britain, without their No. 1 Andy Murray, lost the Europe/Africa Zone group II first round match 3-2 in Vilnius on Sunday.
They now face a relegation playoff against Turkey in July to avoid dropping into group III, the bottom tier of the men’s team competition.
“I share the deep disappointment and frustration at this result. Five defeats in a row is unacceptable,” Draper told the association’s official Web site. “So I have asked LTA player director Steven Martens to review last week’s performance and result and report back to me and the LTA main board as soon as possible.”
“That review needs to be swift and decisive as it is clear some real improvements need to be made,” Draper said.
Captain John Lloyd told BBC radio it was too early to speculate about his position.
“We’ll see about my future, it’s too early yet. We’ll just have to see how it goes in the next few days,” he said. “I said it was going to be a rebuilding process. I would have liked to start with this win but it hasn’t happened.”
Martens denied a media report that former British No.1 Greg Rusedski had been approached to take charge of the team.
“We have had no direct contact at all,” he told the BBC. “I think it would also be very disrespectful to a guy like John to do that.”
“Greg is a fantastic coach, he works with us, he’s fully on board working with some of the male players and John so far has been fully in the loop in everything we do,” he said.
“Clearly we have to be swift and decisive. But it is very important that in the heat of the battle you don’t do anything emotional,” Martens said.
British media expressed mystification on Monday that a country awash with money from Wimbledon should lose to a nation containing only three players with world singles rankings.
“There are at least 29 million reasons why the Lawn Tennis Association’s officials should have been burning with embarrassment in the Baltic last night,” Mark Hodgkinson wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
“Britain’s governing body received more than £29 million (US$44 million) from the surplus of last summer’s Wimbledon championships and have had that sort of money at their disposal for years.
“Yet the grand slam nation yesterday experienced the greatest indignity in more than 100 seasons of the Davis Cup by losing to Lithuania, a country with an annual tennis budget of less than £100,000,” Hodgkinson wrote.
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Roger Federer on Wednesday said that staying involved with tennis in retirement helped him avoid feeling “like an alien” ahead of this week’s Laver Cup in Berlin. Federer, who helped create the tournament, retired at the Laver Cup in London two years ago and has since stayed involved with the competition as an ambassador. “I’m happy I went back right away to some tournaments,” the 43-year-old told reporters. “I feel I ripped the Band-Aid off quite quickly and when I walk around the tennis sites I still feel I belong there,” he said. “I don’t feel like an alien, which is a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two