Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Roger Draper believes that Britain’s junior players are doing well, despite a poor showing at Wimbledon.
Liam Broady and Luke Bambridge lost in the boys’ last 16 while Katy Dunne was the only girl to reach round two.
“We don’t judge things on one tournament, we judge things on a year-round basis,” Draper told BBC Sport.
“At the Junior US Open we had three of the four semi-finalists and we’ve just won the Junior Davis Cup.”
Draper added: “We’ve got the number one boy under 14 and we’ve got the number one girl under 14. We’ve got groups of players coming round, so it’s not just about one tournament.
“Our talent development programme is now one of the best in sport so that’s why we are getting good results. We need a little bit of patience but we’re making good progress.”
This week the former Sport England chief executive has been promoting the LTA’s Allplay tennis scheme, which is aimed at introducing more people to the sport by making them aware of their local courts.
And former British number one Andrew Castle believes getting more youngsters involved in the sport is key to developing British talent.
“I want to see more people playing and not worrying about middle management goals and ambitions, not stopping the kids and talking about having a laugh, learning on the job. Just play,” he said.
“Some of the things that are being done now are absolutely spot on. What it really comes down to now is who they’ve got finding kids in the first place.
“If you’re poor, it’s not easy [to reach the professional game], I would say it’s nigh on impossible. Tennis is still a middle-class game in Britain.
“Allplay is brilliant, it’s making tennis attractive to youngsters but there’s been an awful lot of five-year and 10-year initiatives, an awful lot of blueprints and plans, so please forgive my cynicism.”
