Harriet Dart insists women’s tennis IS on the rise in the UK after Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage’s impressive recent form – despite Dan Evans claiming Emma Raducanu’s US Open win ‘papered over the cracks’
- Harriet Dart believes UK women’s tennis is on the rise despite recent criticisms
- Dan Evans believes isolated successes are masking tennis’ true state in Britain
Harriet Dart believes British women’s tennis is on the rise, despite critics including Dan Evans saying isolated successes such as that of Emma Raducanu are masking its true state.
In Nottingham, Dart was one of four Brits to reach the quarter-finals of a WTA event for the first time in history.
She will compete in Eastbourne this week, facing Shuai Zhang of China first, though will not be joined by Heather Watson or Jodie Burrage after they lost in qualifying yesterday.
Evans, as outspoken as ever, recently took aim at British tennis with Katie Boulter the only woman inside the world’s top 100.
But Dart has said: ‘It’s great that we have a good crop of girls coming through.
Harriet Dart insists women’s tennis is on the rise in the United Kingdom after recent successes
Emma Raducanu has dropped out of the world’s top 100 since winning the US Open in 2021
Dan Evans (above) was one of just three GB players in the French Open draw this year
‘It shows that, okay, we didn’t have anyone in the top 100 – we’ve got one back into top 100 – I’m hoping to get back into there, Jodie is at a career-high and Heather has been playing great and is going to be getting her ranking back up too.
It’s great to see. I think more than anything it shows that all of us have the level and if one person can do it, all of us can do it as well.’
On getting back on the grass, Dart said: ‘We grew up on indoor hard because let’s be frank, the weather is not good enough in this country for us to play enough on grass.
But what we do have to our benefit is that as soon as clay season is done, we are the first to hit on the grass, having a lot of courts in this country.’
This comes after Evans affirmed that Isolated successes such as that of Emma Raducanu have camouflaged the true state of how Britain is faring in elite tennis.
‘They’ve been lucky that they (the LTA) had a Grand Slam champion and she’s a very good tennis player but the rankings don’t lie, do they?’, figured Evans.
‘Men’s, not many of us (three) playing qualifiers, 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.’
