After seven home victories broke the record for an opening day, a repeat performance would have been made it the best ever first-round performance by home players.
But you only have to track back to 2007 to find just two British players winning in the first round, and both Katie O’Brien and Tim Henman, playing his last Wimbledon, lost their next match.
So what has turned Wimbledon from an annual celebration of British sporting mediocrity to a Union Flag-fuelled frenzy of plucky underdog victories?
But it wasn’t a coincidence. While Murray did not really base himself in Britain to train until 2015, once he did, he had a tangible impact on the development of players around him – and not just by almost single-handedly winning the Davis Cup.
“Seeing someone be successful at the highest level and getting to witness the work they do to get there cannot be underestimated.”
Murray has now retired but his legacy is significant (Photo: PA)The same goes for Murray’s coaching team; Davis Cup captain Leon Smith and men’s national coach Mark Hilton have both been on tour with the former world No 1 before returning back to the UK with a broader knowledge base from which to work.
The ‘golden’ centre of excellence
Murray and Draper would regularly hit together, initially at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. Built in 2007, the NTC was award the international Gold Standard in 2021, one of only six national facilities in the world to do so, and has become the training base for the majority of Britain’s professional players.
“We’re always battling over courts. We’re not short of people to hit with, which is great.
“I’ve always said, when training at a base like NTC, you need to let as many people in, create more competition.
Bourne, who worked for UK Sport and English cricket before moving to tennis, believes the focus on competition, with 36 internationally ranked tournaments in Britain every year as well as Wimbledon, has played a key role in driving tennis forward.
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“A good example of what the LTA are doing to help players develop is our domestic Performance Competitions Calendar providing more opportunities to play at home all year round and for players to improve their rankings.”
A Texas finishing school
Of all the possible explanations for Britain’s remarkable explosion of strength in depth, it is hard to believe that one originates a couple of miles from downtown Fort Worth, Texas.
Cam Norrie, Jacob Fearnley and Jack Pinnington-Jones have all represented TCU with aplomb, while Arthur Fery, Oliver Tarvet, Paul Jubb, Henry Patten, Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski have all been to the United States.
As many as 35 British players across all draws have links to US unversities, and it makes sense to do so: the Americans have 33 men and women ranked 100 in the world or better in singles. They must be doing something right.
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