{"id":104880,"date":"2026-05-19T14:15:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=104880"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:15:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:15:37","slug":"british-tennis-regressing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/05\/19\/british-tennis-regressing\/","title":{"rendered":"Is British Tennis Regressing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray retired in August 2024<\/a>, British tennis fans have been crying out for a new name to pin all their hopes and expectations on. While there have been glimpses of a new hope, mostly inspired by Jack Draper<\/a> who has reached a career-high ranking of world #4 and last year won in Indian Wells, more is needed from the current crop of British players.<\/p>\n

Is British Tennis in Decline?<\/h2>\n

A Nation’s Weight On His Shoulders<\/h3>\n

Before Murray ended the 76-year wait for a British Grand Slam champion at the 2012 US Open<\/a>, there was pressure on every British tennis player at every Major tournament. Some crumbled, but Murray shone. At a time when tennis was the most competitive it had ever been, Murray conquered, and if not for the ‘Gig Three’, the Brit would have likely won many more Slams.<\/p>\n

The Scotsman dealt with the enormous pressure immensely, and the British public would have hoped that Murray was just the beginning of British success in tennis. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. At least not yet, but there has been signs.<\/p>\n

Coach Murray to Produce His Own Heir?<\/h3>\n

Since retiring, Murray has dipped his toe into the coaching waters. In fact, he rather threw himself in at the deep end, when he began coaching none other than 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n

While their time together was perhaps not as successful (or long) as many might’ve expected, Murray hasn’t let that stop him. Just the other day British tennis fans received some of the most exciting news in a long while; Murray is to coach Jack Draper<\/a>, at least for the 2026 grass season as the the young Briton looks to rebuild his momentum.<\/p>\n

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Draper has certainly shown promise and looks like the likeliest to pick up Murray’s mantle. Just weeks after Murray retired, he reached the semifinal stage of the 2024 US Open and he continued that momentum into early 2025 by winning his first Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells, taking out Carlos Alcaraz on the way to the title.<\/p>\n

However, much like Murray in the early stages of his career, Draper’s life on tour so far has been hampered by injury. Since turning pro in 2018, Draper has suffered a number of injuries, frustratingly preventing him from maintaining any good form that he is more than capable of picking up.<\/p>\n

Perhaps concerningly Draper’s home Slam, Wimbledon<\/a>, has been his least successful to date. It is the only one of the four Major’s that he has failed to get past the second round in. Perhaps that pressure of playing in front of a home crowd affects him negatively.<\/p>\n

Luckily, if anyone knows a thing or to about overcoming the pressure of performing at his home Slam, it’s two-time Wimbledon champion Murray. It certainly has the tools to be a pairing that proves rather successful – Draper has proven that, when fit, he has the game to challenge the elite and go deep in Slams.<\/p>\n

In Draper’s case, it’s probably less about coaching technical aspects of his tennis and more of a mental game, and there are few that are better equipped in that department than Murray.<\/p>\n

Suffering From Success<\/h3>\n

When Emma Raducanu burst onto the scene to win the 2021 US Open<\/a>, many thought that British tennis had unearthed a new gem. The then 18-year-old came all the way through qualifiers, in just her second Grand Slam appearance, to win the US Open title without dropping a set.<\/p>\n

While of course, winning a Major title is incredible, what she’s gone on to do since then that has been rather disappointing. Or rather what she hasn’t\u00a0<\/em>gone on to do.<\/p>\n

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Since that miraculous run at Flushing Meadows, Raducanu has only made one tour level final – a 250, and has only made it past the third round of a Major once in 13 attempts since then. You don’t fluke winning a Grand Slam, but you have to wonder where that version of Raducanu has gone.<\/p>\n

She went from having no pressure at all on her, to having the eyes of the world eagerly watching and expecting at every tournament she played. Perhaps the pressure has got to her, and she cannot rid the weight of expectation.<\/p>\n

Since her US Open triumph, Raducanu has had six different coaches. She has since gone full circle, and recently re-hired the coach she won her Major title with, Andrew Richardson. Will this be the catalyst she needs to get remotely close to the dizzy heights of Grand Slam champion once again?<\/p>\n

A Low Point<\/h3>\n

As it stands, Cam Norrie is the only male player ranked inside the top 50, and Raducanu is the only female player. Draper’s ranking drop can be put down to his injury problems, but players like Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal and Jacob Fearnley have all gone off the boil in recent months.<\/p>\n

With Wimbledon on the horizon, British tennis fans will be hoping for their countrymen and women to pick up form and give them something to shout about, otherwise the disappointing days of before Andy Murray may be back soon.<\/p>\n

Main photo credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray retired in August 2024, British tennis fans have been crying out for a new name to pin all their hopes and expectations on. While there have been glimpses of a new hope, mostly inspired by Jack Draper who has reached a career-high ranking of world #4 and last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5607,"featured_media":68688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"modified_by":"Jim Smith","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105055,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104880\/revisions\/105055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}