Margaret Court calls for more national support for country tennis

It’s been more than 20 years since a player hailing from regional Australia, Pat Rafter in 1998, claimed a grand slam singles title.

While Griffith-born Evonne Goolagong Cawley won the last of her seven major titles at the 1977 Australian Open.

Court believes there’s not a lot of support for tennis outside of the major cities.

“I think we have to go back to the country areas,” Court said.

“I see what Phil Shanahan does here in Albury with the youngsters, but they don’t get a lot of help (from Tennis Australia).

“I think there’s a lot of country areas doing it tough, I know even in the west (Western Australia), it’s hard for them to get coaches.

“I think we really have to look at the grassroots of tennis because the grassroots foundation was very good when I was young.

“They’d send us to Sydney or Melbourne for coaching and they’d keep their eye on you to see what fruit of young players were coming through.”

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Court added there’s not enough natural talent in the Australian ranks at the present time.

“We probably take them away from home too early now,” she said.

“A coach will build a player and is the one that’s puts the style and everything in, but often they can go away somewhere and that changes.

“The foundation is so important.

“To have good strokes and a good coach in those early years to listen and learn from is crucial.

“I look at some of the foundation of some of the young people today with their strokes and you can look at them and think they’re not going to go very far, because it limits them.

“We have wonderful athletes, but unless they have a good foundation, they won’t make it.

“I think it’s time we had another few great players come through because we’re such a sporting nation.

“I think there’s an area they can really have a look at, and I’m not the only one saying it, many of the past champions are saying the same thing.”

Court would love to see plenty more talent emerge from this year’s Margaret Court Cup at the Albury grass courts, which commences on Friday.