| Dates: 28 Could-11 June Venue: Roland Garros, Paris |
| Protection: Reside textual content and radio commentaries of chosen matches throughout BBC Radio 5 Sports activities Additional, the BBC Sport web site and app |
Emma Raducanu’s victory on the US Open papered over the cracks within the state of British tennis, says Dan Evans.
Evans, seeded twenty fourth, is one in every of solely three Britons enjoying within the French Open singles predominant attracts, alongside Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper.
With Raducanu injured, there aren’t any British gamers within the girls’s singles.
“There’s sufficient individuals enjoying junior tennis. We simply do not assist them in my view. It is a scarce draw, is not it?” mentioned the British males’s quantity two.
Evans, 33, has lengthy been a vocal critic of the pathway in British tennis and mentioned the nation was “fortunate” to see Raducanu emerge as a serious champion in 2021.
Requested if Raducanu’s win as a teenage qualifier in New York “papered over cracks”, Evans mentioned: “Is {that a} rhetorical query? Sure.
“She’s an excellent tennis participant however the rankings do not lie, do they?
“I do not wish to sound like a damaged file. However there may be approach additional to go than simply the highest gamers. It is from the underside up.”
Britain has 4 gamers ranked within the males’s world high 60, though Andy Murray shouldn’t be becoming a member of Norrie, Evans and Draper at Roland Garros after deciding to give attention to the grass-court season.
Raducanu, 20, can also be lacking from the clay-court Grand Slam following surgical procedures on her wrists and ankle.
Raducanu has just lately dropped to 106th on this planet, which means there aren’t any British gamers inside the highest 100 of the ladies’s rankings.
Seven girls misplaced in qualifying at Roland Garros – Harriet Dart, Katie Swan, Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal, Heather Watson, Lily Miyazaki and Francesca Jones – as did Ryan Peniston, Liam Broady and Jan Choinski within the males’s occasion.
Talking at Roland Garros on Friday, Evans added. “Argentina obtained 13 males within the qualifying right here. They haven’t any cash, they don’t have anything. Not a federation principally.
“We have to make individuals love tennis and become involved. That is what I feel we have to do: get an even bigger pool, pool all of it in and get going.
“It is easy. It is easy maths.”
Since getting back from a medicine ban in 2018 after testing constructive for cocaine, Evans has put his partying way of life behind him and urged others to dedicate themselves extra to the game.
Evans reached a career-high rating of twenty second aged 31 and likewise gained the primary ATP title of his profession in 2021.
“You have to work onerous,” he mentioned.
“I do know what it is prefer to not work onerous and what you get from that and I do know what it is prefer to work onerous and get first rate rewards.
“I am not sitting right here saying I do know the solutions.
“Put it this fashion, for those who play 20 tournaments a 12 months, you’re allowed one dangerous match since you get 19 that rely in direction of your rating.
“In the event you play 30, you give your self a good probability to have some dangerous weeks and you may even have some good weeks.”
