Having seen Dan Evans play, there seems to be little indication
from that as to why he has been hovering around the lowly 400 in the
world mark, blending into the spray of yet another depressing, weedy
British Tennis player! But as the case for 99.9999999% of all
British Tennis players his attitude was shocking. Seeing any Brit
play tennis (Murray excluded) is like watching a dark, introspective
Swedish thriller – it drags on and on, and leaves you feeling cold
at the end, the only respite being that it had finished! WHERE’S THE
LOVE AND JOY OF PLAYING A SPORT FOR A LIVING?? WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE
YOU’RE ON DEATH ROW?? Dan himself admitted in an interview : “I
don’t train hard enough, I don’t work hard enough. I know that’s the
reason. It’s my fault. I’m obviously pretty bad at my job.”
But what was different with Dan was that he came out, admitted it
and changed it, his new approach being set in place for quite a few
months now. And as the LTA certainly don’t encourage the right
attitude, it takes a wise man to admit it, as so many Brits just
“take the positives” from their 6-0 6-0 defeat to a 12 year old
playing with a frying pan.
Evans finally had his funding cut by the LTA and since then, his
attitude has changed MASSIVELY for the best as he hasn’t had this
spoilt Mum pouring money into him no matter what he does.
What is wrong about the LTA is how a player, who admits freely
himself that he has a shocking attitude, is allowed to keep
receiving funding. This meant he was being rewarded for not working
hard, which is completely loony. The LTA are focussing and rewarding
the wrong things, as Greg Rudsetski summed up all so well in his
boring and inconceivably annoying Canadian drawl:
*Dan Evans smashes a winner past Tomic, really looking to attack and
take the ball on* “What a GREAT shot! This is why he is so
dangerous.”
*Dan Evans goes to attack a second serve on an important point and
hits it long*
“What was thatt??!!! What was he thinking? That’s why he’s not in
the top 100″
See, the LTA are all about the outcome, not the process and the
attitude. They look at results of the shot, the match. Whereas
rewards should be given for hard work, for the right attitude, for
the right thinking. Greg should be saying to Evans, after he missed
some shots – “Keep going for those shots and having that love of
hitting your shots with no fear and the results will come! You’re a
young player and only by playing with the love of the game can you
improve every match you play.”
As Aggassi put it: “When I get a short ball, I go up and rip it. If
I hit it out, I go and hit it harder next time!” This is the
attitude which should be rewarded, as it is in the Bolletieri
Academy, where a massive percentage of the top players in the world
come from. But the Brits wouldn’t last a second in that academy as
they are completely obsessed and paralysed by outcome, not obsessed
by working hard with the love of the game.
