Draper sees no reason to quit, despite poor form at Wimbledon

Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Roger Draper says he is not considering his position despite Britain's worst ever showing at Wimbledon.

Andy Murray was the only Briton to make it through to the second round of the tournament last week after a hugely disappointing opening two days for domestic players at SW19.

Murray and Elena Baltacha are Britain's solitary representatives in the world's current top 100, which falls well below the target of five players Draper set two years ago.

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However, asked if he had ever thought about resigning, Draper said: "No, we are in this for the long-term.

"As a leader in sport, what you now need is business continuity and to continually improve what has been happening across the sport."

Draper expressed his disappointment at how British players had fared last week, but insists progress is being made.

"We are four years into a 10-year transformation of the sport," he said. "The reason we made the changes a few years ago was to stop what happened on Monday and Tuesday, and that takes time.

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"I know from my experience at Sport England in terms of distributing lottery money that it takes a number of cycles to get the players through.

"What we are now doing to get more kids playing tennis in schools will pay dividends. We will get success and we have got to be ready for that."

Great Britain's Davis Cup captain John Lloyd resigned in March after a humiliating loss to Lithuania but Draper was adamant nobody from the LTA needed to follow suit.

Asked if it was necessary for anyone from the LTA to go, Draper said: "Not at this moment in time, because we take full responsibility for everything that goes on across the sport.

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"It would be like playing Russian roulette if you based everything on one or two days of the year. Back in January we had Andy Murray in the final of the Australian Open, Laura Robson in her second (junior Australian) grand slam final, Peter Norfolk picking up his third (quads singles) Australian Open and the sport was seen as very successful.

"Then all of a sudden, you lose a few matches at Wimbledon and it's terrible."

Draper added that he hopes to see 2008 Wimbledon junior champion Robson and Heather Watson, who won the junior US Open last year, break into the top 100 over the next two years.