While America sees an increase in tennis participation, other countries aren’t as fortunate. Paul Allam, a native Scot and tennis coach living in the United States, says Scotland tennis is in trouble.

“Tennis only ranks 17 in terms of participation and popularity in Scotland. We have about 30,000 registered tennis members of clubs, which include adults and juniors. Only one-percent of the five million people play tennis. As a very patriotic Scot, I feel helpless about the current issues hindering the development of tennis in Scotland,” says Allam. He adds that the time to push for change is now, considering Andy Murray’s success is spiking interest nationwide.

Tennis View: Why is tennis struggling in Scotland?
Paul Allam: For starters, the inclement weather and lack of courts make it impossible to promote tennis as a year round sport. There are 6 indoor tennis centers in Scotland available to the public, which equates to 32 courts. There’s another 57 indoor courts at commercial clubs. If we are to grow the game we need more outdoor courts in parks and schools, but we also need indoor courts in all of the big towns.und of the 2010 Australian Open.

Has Andy Murray’s success raised the awareness of tennis in Scotland?
Yes, a huge amount. He’s one of the world’s best players and he’s constantly on television and in the press. Andy appeals to the kids because he’s still very young himself. There will never be a better time for the country to capitalize on this opportunity to promote the sport than right now.

Is Tennis Scotland (the governing body) jumping on this opportunity?
Unfortunately, this is a very amateur organization. Despite having about 12 full time staff, it doesn’t appear to have strong leadership or a sense of direction. Consequently, minimal progress has been made in the past three or four years.

When Tennis Scotland recognizes a gifted junior is it able to provide adequate coaching?
We have a few dedicated
We have a few dedicated high performance level coaches, but the level of coaching is generally mediocre. Many clubs don’t have coaches because they are unable to offer full-time work due to the lack of indoor courts. And many coaches work in isolation and struggle to improve their levels. They often get disillusioned with the lack of support.

Andy moved to Spain when he was 15 to train at Sanchez Academy. Was his move necessary
for success?
Yes, to continue to improve he needed a competitive environment with quality sparring partners and like-minded, dedicated players. He needed to be a small fish in a big pond. In Britain it’s too easy to be a big fish in a small pond, which can lead to negativity and defensive attitudes in many players.

Spain also has better weather to play outdoors year round – and has an abundance of
clay courts?
Moving to Spain allowed Andy to better prepare for the men’s circuit. Because of Scotland’s weather, training was almost entirely indoors. And currently, there’s one clay court venue in Scotland, located at the Craiglockhart Tennis Centre in Edinburgh. This club has eight clay courts. Our kids play on artificial grass which is one of the worst training surfaces available but is probably the best surface for our small clubs as you can play through the rain.

Do most elite juniors follow in Andy’s footsteps and leave Scotland?
Yes, the good ones tend to move to England or overseas. Our talent pool is pretty limited due to the small number of youngsters playing the game. While our system works pretty well with a few kids aged 8 –14, due to our inferior training environment we’re not able to take them to the next level.

Who – Tennis Scotland or the family – ultimately funds the move and training?
More often than not, it doesn’t happen. Scotland does not exist as a nation in tennis terms so Tennis Scotland’s activity relies on its funds from the LTA (the governing body of tennis in Great Britain) and Sportscotland but doesn’t have a big enough budget to support the training nor does the family.
Unfortunately, it can be a waste of good talent.

How can Scotland cater to the younger generation and grow tennis?
It’s vital for Tennis Scotland to develop a clearly defined plan to build more indoor courts, school courts, park courts and ensure better quality outdoor courts at clubs, including relevant player development surfaces like decoturf and clay. And we need a full-time center to train players and develop coaches.

Will Tennis Scotland implement these changes?
Currently, they don’t have a proposal. There’s an urgent need for a strong, ambitious leader who knows the game and who can devise a five to ten year strategy and ensure it’s carried through. We have a chance to build tennis into a major sport and provide opportunities for our youth to follow in Andy Murray’s footsteps and be our next generation of world class tennis players. We must ensure that chance is not missed.