I’ll see the job through and I won’t step down, vows Draper
UNDER-FIRE Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Roger Draper has vowed not to walk away despite Britain’s worst-ever showing at Wimbledon.
Andy Murray was the only one of seven British players to make it through to the second round, while the LTA suffered the ignominy of having no English player in the men’s singles at SW19 for the first time ever.
Indeed, only Murray and British women’s No1 Elena Baltacha are ranked inside the world’s top 100 – a statistic which falls well blow the targets set by Draper two years ago.
This has led to much criticism of Draper’s reign, but the LTA chief insists the process of nurturing talent takes time and says he is not considering his position.
Asked if he had ever thought about resigning, Draper said: “No, we are in this for the long-term.
“As a leader in sport, what you now need is business continuity and to continually improve what has been happening across the sport.”
He added: “We are four years into a 10-year transformation of the sport. The reason we made the changes a few years ago was to stop what happened on Monday and Tuesday, and that takes time.
“What we are now doing to get more kids playing tennis in schools will pay dividends. We will get success and we have got to be ready for that.”