Can Ireland ever produce a Wimbledon champion?

Analysis: looking at why some nations struggle to produce tennis stars may help identify strategies for Ireland to nurture talented players

By Garry Cahill and Aine MacNamara, DCU

On June 11th, Serbia's Novak Djokovic won his 23rd Grand Slam defeating Norway's Casper Ruud in the Roland Garros final. In contrast, Ireland has yet to have a player in the final rounds of any Grand Slam events.

Djokovic and Ruud come from countries with less than seven million people so why can't Ireland with a comparable population, produce tennis players with the ability to compete against the best of the world? In our research, we are interested in understanding why some nations struggle to produce tennis stars so that we can identify potential strategies to assist countries like Ireland in nurturing tennis talent.

In the run-up to Wimbledon, videos of 4-year-old Djokovic practicing his forehand have been circulating on social media. This drive for early success in tennis assumes that early ability, which enables progression and selection, is indicative of later success. In some ways, this is a true-ism, at least in terms of how the sport is structured.

Our research shows that selection for national teams in lots of contexts is exclusively based on early national rankings: "we select the best ranked 12 and under". If this is the case, it is no wonder parents, and coaches emphasise early success rather than long-term development as this seems to be the way tennis players get into the system. But this approach falls foul of historically poor thinking in talent development with a robust range of data highlighting the best 10 and under tennis player is not guaranteed to transition to the senior level.

The presence of role models can