Cash goes on the attack and calls for LTA chief Draper to resign

Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has called on Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Roger Draper to resign for the "shocking" and "disgraceful" way he claims Britain's governing body has let down the country's young tennis players at grass roots level.

When Draper took on the role in 2006 he vowed to revolutionise the sport and bring more of Britain's prospects into the top 100 of world tennis.

Yet four years later only two Britons – Andy Murray and Elena Baltacha sit inside that mark, with world No 4 Murray the only player to have a serious chance of winning a grand slam tournament this year.

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Defeat for Alex Bogdanovic at Roehampton left Britain with only two qualifiers for the men's singles event at Wimbledon – Murray and world No 254 Jamie Baker, while Lisa Whybourn will be Britain's sole representative in the final round of qualifying at Roehampton.

The 19-year-old, who was unranked nine months ago, was a 6-1 6-4 winner over Italy's Anna Floris.

Naomi Cavaday, who turned down a wild card for the main draw, lost 6-1 6-2 to 22nd seed Andrea Hlavackova.

In their 2009 annual report, the LTA claimed over 30,000 young people competed at tennis on a regular basis, a significant rise of over 20,000 from when Draper took over in 2006.

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Cash, who won Wimbledon in 1987, denies tennis is readily accessible to British young players though and reckons the 32m spent on the national tennis centre in Roehampton should have been directed towards encouraging youngsters into the sport.

He believes Draper has failed the current generation who are looking to break into professional tennis and when asked whether he thought Draper should resign if Britain failed to shine in the next few years, Cash replied: "I actually think he should have gone years ago."

Defending champion Roger Federer is the top seed for the men's singles at Wimbledon despite losing his world No 1 spot to Rafael Nadal.

Nadal, who was unable to defend his title last year because of injury, overtook his rival after winning his fifth French Open crown earlier this month.

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Novak Djokovic and Murray, who will not play in next month's Davis Cup tie against Turkey, are seeded third and fourth, respectively, while defending champion and world No 1 Serena Williams is the top seed in the women's draw.

Last year's men's runner-up, Andy Roddick, has been rewarded for his pedigree on grass by being seeded fifth, above French Open finalist Robin Soderling and Nikolay Davydenko.

World No 8 Juan Martin Del Potro has been forced to withdraw from the tournament because of a wrist injury so Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga complete the top 10.