Service game: Can Ireland create pathways to develop the next Nadal or Raducanu?

There's no Irish man or woman featuring in Wimbledon this year and that situation is unlikely to change in the near future. So what needs to happen to produce top-level talent that can compete at SW19 and the game's Grand Slam tournaments?

IRISH EXODUS: Action from the opening day at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

The drive from Dublin to West Cork can torture the mind. Cross the border into Rebel country and it's hard not to feel that the back of it is broken when the job is only halfway done. That same trap lies in wait on the road from the capital to Castlebar once you hit Roscommon and Garrett Barry knows it all too well having navigated the stretch time and again down the years.

Birr-born but based in the west, Barry is performance director for Tennis Ireland. That journey spanning east and west, replete with pockets where your phone signal can be lost to the wilderness, could serve as a neat analogy for the seemingly endless road that is the sport’s attempt to deliver an Irish player to the summit of the global game.