LTA Suspends Juniors For Discipline Breach

The LTA has continued its hard line stance on its younger players withdrawing
funding for two of Britain’s top juniors for ‘unprofessional behaviour’ and
‘lack of discipline’.

It is thought that the two unnamed players in question are David Rice, the
second-best British junior, and Naomi Broady, the national Under-18 champion,
with both having been suspended after the LTA ruled them to have breached
contracts requiring them to act professionally.

The action was taken after the governing body discovered photos and
inappropriate remarks by the players on the Bebo social networking website.

LTA chief Roger Draper stated: ‘The people they’re letting down the most is
themselves. They’ve either got to behave like professional athletes or go and do
something else.

‘It’s about taking responsibility, being accountable and sorting their lives
out. What disappoints me more than anything else is while these people are
saying they want to be professional tennis players and want all the trappings
that come with that, they aren’t behaving in that way.

‘We’ve got to deal with it behind closed doors and there’s a big education
job to be done with these players. I don’t think sometimes they realise the
opportunities they’ve been given.’

In the pictures, one British junior is shown slumped on a hotel bed
surrounded by empty pizza boxes.

The caption reads “fatty” and someone has posted the comment “I thought you
were meant to be an athlete”.

Another photo shows one of the juniors standing in the street holding an
empty bottle, with the caption: “Me drunk for a change”.

Virtually all the players left their pages unlocked, allowing the whole world
access although the pages were finally locked on Sunday following calls from
furious officials at the LTA.