If they don't make it in tennis it's not a problem

If they don't make it in tennis it's not a problem."Dean, as he is happy to acknowledge, is hardly the archetypal working- class kid, but he does come from Brixton and he did take part in the much vaunted initiative there six years ago to encourage inner-city tennis players. Most of the juniors training at Bisham Abbey have parents with a lot of money. "There is no reason why we can't do what they have."There are, however, reasons why Britain continues to perform underwhelmingly as a tennis nation, and not all of them are down to consumer choice "We have the wrong type of players," Dean said "We have middle-class or upper- class players. Andrew Dean, a 20-year-old from Brixton, was sending down serves whose hollow thwack echoed around the walls of the four-court indoor tennis area.As one of a five-strong group supervised by the club's head tennis professional, Francis Mackie, Dean has dedicated himself to full-time tennis in an effort to bridge the gap from being a successful junior to one who can make his way into the world rankings and, maybe, the British Davis Cup team.Dean and his training partner David Webley, a 19-year-old from Haddenham, have gained real encouragement from the Davis Cup debuts of Miles Maclagan and Tim Henman, whom they knew in the junior ranks "We know the standard they were then," Webley said.

No courts.But Enfield was not entirely lacking yesterday in those willing to buck the sporting trend. When his first club opened at Heston 13 years ago it was given over entirely to the sport at which David Lloyd and his brother John had excelled. When he opens his next in Reading this summer, it will not have any tennis facilities Nice gym, nice pool. From the other side of the perimeter hedge a man with a megaphone conducts a junior athletics meeting. Why is Britain no use in the Davis Cup? Why is the next British Wimbledon champion a figment of imagination? Part of the answer has to be that Britons are finding so many ways to exercise other than through tennis.The Enfield centre is one of 13 bearing the name of the man who has just taken over the poisoned chalice of Britain's Davis Cup captaincy. Inside the purpose-built centre, members work out in the gym or congregate by the pool or gather in the highly popular, 40-lane tenpin bowling alley.

Twenty-four hours after Britain equalled its worst-ever run of defeats in international tennis, the outdoor courts at the David Lloyd Club in Enfield are busy with children - black and white, some as young as five or six They are playing an informal game of football. In 10 years, we'll be beating the best Slovaks in the world.. Someone even mentioned lottery money...So why do we still do badly? It's time, you see We just have to be patient. The Germans began their grand tennis schemes 20 years ago, the Swedes likewise. "Our eyes are open; the issues have been addressed," says Mark Cox, the former player and BBC commentator. Cox says that our 14-and-under boys team and 16-and-under girls recently reached the finals of important European and American competitions So in 10 years we'll be better? Absolutely. This was simplified at the start of the year, and Lloyd felt encouraged enough to become our Davis Cup captain, with his brother John its coach.Like the LTA, the Lloyds are optimistic; to hear them tell it, these new developments are the best news since AT Myers first served overarm.

Until recently, Lloyd was one of the LTA's biggest critics, unhappy at the management structure which meant it took months for any committee to make a decision. Last year, the LTA announced that another £28m would be invested from the proceeds of Wimbledon (in 1981, the proceeds were only about £400,000).And now there is even a new saviour in the shape of David Lloyd, the man behind the hugely successful and rather expensive private tennis and leisure clubs. There would be many slow clay courts, to help cure a particular weakness in our game Proven coaches would be imported from abroad A new environment would be created in schools. And in 1992 the LTA got even more serious, with a five-year plan that promised to spend £11m on the upgrading of tournament venues, £8m on training facilities, £19m on new indoor courts, and £25m on more public outdoor courts. "We thought we had it made in the Seventies," Johnny Perkins says. He mentions Virginia Wade, Mark Cox, Roger Taylor, Sue Barker.

"We thought things would carry on."The Indoor Tennis Initiative that began in 1986 has produced 35 public access pay-and-play centres, many in the north, the last of which opened in Glasgow in April. One can't help feeling it's not like that in Gothenburg, where a young talent is not treated like a freak.But things have improved significantly in the past few years Not the players, perhaps, but at least the infrastructure. And when you want to play, you can't because it's raining.Anyway, most kids would rather be Norman Bates than Jeremy Bates: Ryan Giggs and Sally Gunnell are role models, winners; why should anyone want to copy someone who always goes out in the third round? And if we do find someone young and talented, parents sell everything to jet them to Florida and take them to every LTA tournament, where inevitably they burn out. There is the class thing: tennis is too often perceived as a middle-class pursuit played lazily by those with high cholesterol. Tennis is not a street sport: there are not enough well-maintained public courts; when new faces join, they are not welcomed; when they seek coaching, the coaches are often poor motivators. Britain has about 2 per cent of the world's players (and now 121 countries play tennis, not only the 12 or so that competed when Fred Perry reigned).