Sportmaster International

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has rejected claims that it is trying to capture the top coaching talent in Australia by offering massive wages to mentor Britain’s emerging players.The Australian’s fear that it is their coaches who the LTA are targeting most and Tennis Australia’s director of player development Craig Tiley says that there have been unwanted approaches made.Tiley said: ‘They’ve got an international recruiting agency to find the people who are delivering in the other federations from around the world and they’ve been heavy on the

recruitment of our talented people and just enticing them by money.’Recent high profile additions to the LTA coaching ranks have been Brad Gilbert, who has previously worked with Andre Agassi and now coaches Andy Murray, and Roger Federer’s former coach Peter Lundgren, who has a contract to work with the Davis Cup team. In reaction to Mr Tiley’s claims a LTA spokesperson said: ‘We are unclear where Mr Tiley is coming from and we can confirm that none of our top positions will go to any person currently employed by Tennis Australia.'’We are in the final stages of a worldwide search and recruitment programme to ensure we get the best team in place to deliver real success to the British game.’Whatever the final outcome is it seems that in the future British tennis stars will have the help of the very best coaches from around the world as they look to find young hopeful’s to fill the shoes of Tim Henman.© 2006 Adfero Ltd.