Rankings don’t lie – Dan Evans believes British tennis has soul-searching to do

independent.co.uk:

Dan Evans has criticised the state of British tennis and believes Emma Raducanu’s success has papered over the cracks.There will only be three British players in the singles main draws at the French Open starting on Sunday and, for the first time since 2008, no women.Of the 10 British players in qualifying, none made the final round, while 2021 US Open champion Raducanu joined Andy Murray in withdrawing having undergone surgery on both her wrists and one ankle.Speaking ahead of his first-round clash with Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis, Evans said: “They’ve been lucky that they had a grand slam champion and she’s a very good tennis player but the rankings don’t lie, do they?“Men’s or women’s, the rankings don’t lie.

Men’s, not many of us playing qualis, not many main draw. I don’t want to sound like a broken record. But there’s way further to go than just the top players.

It’s from the bottom up.“We’re in a massive, massive habit of sending people to college now. I don’t think that massively helps.

It’ll be interesting. I think the grass last year really helped paper over some cracks as well. After the grass, there will be a bit of soul-searching I imagine, after their holidays.”Evans has been a long-time critic of the domestic set-up and recently criticised some of his fellow British players for not competing enough and being willing to grind out life on the tour.I'm not sitting here saying I know the answers.