Tennis Australia’s performance boss Tim Jolley is confident the country’s future in the sport is bright, but acknowledges there is a “gap” between an ageing men’s crop and the next generation.
As the Craig Tiley era ends and TA’s new chief executive Andrew Abdo prepares to start on August 3, the entire operation, from the Australian Open to the development pathway, particularly whether it can produce our next grand slam champion, is under the microscope.
“We want as many Aussies competing in the top 10 on the men’s and women’s tours as possible, so thinking about talent development is critical,” Abdo said last week.
Almost 1.4 million fans came through Melbourne Park’s gates in January, but 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash wants more attention on the grassroots game, private coaches and junior development.
No Australian junior made it past the second round at this year’s Australian Open, while there are only three Australian men younger than 25 in the top 500, and the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup teams both suffered disappointing first-round defeats.
Top-10 star and seven-time major quarter-finalist Alex de Minaur continues to do the heavy lifting, four years after triple grand slam champion Ash Barty’s retirement.
Much is resting on Lleyton Hewitt’s 17-year-old son, Cruz, realising his potential, at least among this next wave of men.
The women’s stocks are healthier. Maya Joint, Talia Gibson, Emerson Jones and Taylah Preston are all 21 or younger and performing well.
But Jolley told this masthead that, in his view, a closer look under the hood presented a rosier picture, including 14 different players spending time inside the top 100 of the ATP and WTA rankings last year.
“That number was the highest we’ve had since 1989,” said Jolley, who has been in his role since 2020.
“It’s been a reasonably linear progression to that peak since 2005, when the most transformative change was made to player development in Australia, where the co-ordination of player development was centralised, which Craig Tiley did when he joined the business.
“We’ve got strength in our pipeline of juniors as well. I think we’ve got 30 players in the top 15 in their birth year in the junior rankings [on Universal Tennis Rating].”
The UTR system, which TA has invested in, provides every player with a rating independent of age, gender or nationality, using an algorithm based on head-to-head results.
A beginner usually sits between one and four, while a professional player is typically 12 or higher, including world No.1 Jannik Sinner being at 16.4.
How does TA’s pathway work?
Jolley describes Tennis Australia’s national academy, headed by Brent Larkham and Nicole Kriz, as the pinnacle of its talent development pathway.
Eighteen of Australia’s best prospects are in the academy, including former world junior No.1 Jones, while there are another 100-odd players training in state-based programs.
Performance benchmarks are used at each age, with room for discretion, and the aim is to develop players who are breaking into the world’s top 100 by age 23.
TA also has a United States college program, overseen by Joint’s coach Chris Mahony, who keeps tabs on a further 16 athletes. Jones’ older brother, Hayden, a former top-10 junior, is among them.
The national body is annually sending north of 50 junior players, as young as 11 years old, overseas to compete.
Among other initiatives are the Super 10s advantage program, which is designed to upskill the best 10-and-under players, while TA selected 10 private coaching businesses across the country with a track record of producing strong-performing players aged between seven and 12 years as “talent hubs”.
Talent hub coaches receive funding to help develop players, and access to exclusive workshops and networking opportunities.
Among the criticisms of TA’s pathway program are that not enough players are identified, more Australian Open riches should be used, late developers slip through the cracks, prospects need to move on from private coaches to receive funding, and that players born outside Australia are being funded.
The latest example is Mustafa Ege Sik, who switched allegiances from Turkey to Australia in April.
It was that case which prompted Adelaide coach Todd Langman’s frustration at one of his players, 18-year-old Sarah Mildren, a former top-100 junior, having to pay to use an undercover court.
Langman, who agrees with Cash’s concerns about Australian tennis, coached Thanasi Kokkinakis from a junior to the professional tour, and has three other young players heading on a European trip with TA this month.
“Not everyone can use the undercover courts, but she definitely should have been, in my mind, one who ticks the boxes [with her achievements],” Langman told this masthead.
“I want as many Australians in the top 100, and top 10, as we can, but I’d like that to be home-grown talent. I believe that we’ve got the coaches, and clearly the funds, to be able to support these athletes, but we’ve got so many handcuffs. We don’t need to make it harder than what it is.”
Jolley was unaware of Mildren’s situation, but said TA tried to use its funding to positively impact as many players as possible. He said TA did not pursue overseas players to represent Australia.
What is Italy doing?
The modern gold standard in developing tennis stars is Italy, particularly on the men’s side, where they have four top-20 players, headlined by world No.1 Jannik Sinner.
The country’s top-ranked woman, Jasmine Paolini, also spent most of the past two years in the top 10 and made two grand slam finals, continuing a proud tradition that includes greats such as Francesca Schiavone, Flavia Pennetta, Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani.
Three Italian men – world No.14 Flavio Cobolli, Matteo Arnaldi and 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini – reached the Roland-Garros quarter-finals or better.
World No.11 Lorenzo Musetti and 17th-ranked Luciano Darderi are other top Italians.
Outside de Minaur, Nick Kyrgios (2022 Wimbledon and US Open) and John Millman (2018 US Open) are the sole Australian men to advance to at least the last eight at a slam in the past decade.
De Minaur, Kyrgios and Alexei Popyrin are the country’s only top-20 men’s players in that period.
The Italian Tennis Federation’s strategy centred on coach development, early talent identification with a long-term view, data-driven planning, and more local tournaments. Australian coach Craig O’Shannessy has consulted for them since 2016.
Melbourne-based coach Michael Logarzo, whose business is one of TA’s talent hubs, said prioritising upskilling coaches was something Australian tennis could learn from the Italian system.
He wants to see experienced coaches working more closely with younger peers.
“When you speak about player development; it should be about how we develop better coaches to produce better players,” Logarzo told this masthead.
“The best coaches are continually learning, reflecting and adapting. The broader question is, do we, as an industry, have enough quality control? I would also question in this country how many coaches want to develop high-level players versus simply running great businesses.”
Logarzo and Langman agreed that private coaches working together with TA, rather than being splintered or competing against one another, was the best way to develop more future stars.
The Italians also opted for a decentralised model rather than continuing what they did previously in bringing the best young players into a national training centre, such as Tennis Australia’s national academy in Brisbane.
They also supported private coaches who developed players from childhood with resources and expertise, rather than requiring them to work with federation employees.
The Italian federation hosted a group of Tennis Australia staff last year.
Jolley said Italy’s proximity to so many tournaments in comparison to Australia was a key reason for differences in how each organisation operated, largely because of the financial demands once an elite junior player started travelling.
“Our private coaches are trying to run a business back home, and except for one or two, it is virtually impossible for them to sustain that level of support and commitment for a player,” he said.
“It’s the reason why, unfortunately, players often feel that they need to come in to Tennis Australia programs at a slightly younger age than some players in Europe, because of that travel burden.”
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