Tennis needs a big service

Local Tennis needs a big serve to get its match going again, as the crescendos that sport have been going through over the past decade are too consistent.

Once one of the more organized disciplines,tennis was a look to for administrative competence, structured youth development programmes, junior tournaments at every school vacation, then the results of a heavy traffic of college and university scholarships.

However, the sport cannot boast of being in that same place at this juncture.

And, several factors have contributed to the steady decline in all facets of tennis over the years. No one though should finger any particular president or specific area of weakness for the relegation of tennis as just a sport that is practised here.

There is selfishness on the part of some parents who only exert interest in the operations of the SVG Tennis Association until their children have procured scholarships, as they then become missing in action. Then too, the internal abrasions among executive members have added another facet of the accrued degradations of the national association, much to the detriment of the sport.

But at present, the current tennis operations are characterized by lethargy and a lack of commitment.

One would have thought that with a new executive installed just over a year ago, one would have witnessed a renaissance of sorts, but that has not happened.

Save and except for the annual International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Tournament, there is little to show in activity from those elected to give the sport that much needed booster shot.

But in saying so, as the sport lingers, the once revered and touted National Tennis Centre at Villa, like the sport itself, is heading for a state of disrepair.

Also, a few resignations along the way, a lull in tennis activity, especially among the juniors; and almost invisibility in national sphere of the sporting agenda, are the loud pronouncements.

There exists a type of autonomous going on, as the various tennis clubs are going through with their business of coaching, devoid of a rudder and navigational apparatus from the national executive.

So, are these parents just contented with their children attending their respective coaching schools, and jetting off basically on their own to tournaments overseas?

How much good does that do for the overall development and sale of tennis as a good sporting product of St Vincent and the Grenadines?

It therefore is pointless for persons who profess to love tennis to allow the hard work of those who have gone before them to be wasted.

Tennis now needs better, as it has moved from an elitist set-up to one where persons from the lower strata of society can get that opportunity to show off their talents.

More so as well, the reputation that St Vincent and the Grenadines has forged, as a mirror of near excellence in tennis, should not dissipate into thin air.

Hence, a call is being made by this forum for lovers of tennis to come to the aid of the Brian Nash led executive of the SVG Tennis Association and use their skill sets and salvage the sport from total decay.

The best all stakeholders can do at this time is hit the court and give tennis a big service.