Tennis: Alex Bogdanovic saddened by Wimbledon wild card snub

Tennis: Alex Bogdanovic saddened by Wimbledon wild card snub

Alex Bogdanovic has labelled the LTA "disrespectful" for cutting his funding from 15,000 to 4,000 in December and accusing him of lacking effort.

Bogdanovic has received a Wimbledon wild card in each of the past eight years and lost in the first round each time but he still met the current criteria outlined by the LTA, that a player had to be ranked inside the top 250 to be considered. Bogdanovic is No166 in the world rankings while Jamie Baker, who is ranked 254, was given a Wimbledon wild card.

The British No2 also said his subsequent decision not to play in Great Britain's Davis Cup tie against Turkey next month was a factor in his exclusion from this year's Wimbledon wildcard list.

Bogdanovic claims that when he told Leon Smith, Britain's new captain, he was making himself unavailable for the Davis Cup tie because his funding had been cut he was told that he would not be receiving wild cards into Queen's Club or next week's Aegon International in Eastbourne.

Bogdanovic lost his first-round match here at the Aegon Championships, going down 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

"I finished the year 164 and British No2 and I didn't get into the Aegon squad," he said. "My money was cut. Steven Martens basically said the reason for that is I wasn't working hard enough throughout the whole year. I thought that was just so disrespectful because that's very untrue.

"He said my intensity wasn't good enough and that hurt me a lot because I've been out there trying to give it my best shot to break the top 100 for maybe the last eight years. They obviously didn't believe in me any more."

Bogdanovic says he will play Davis Cup in future, but only if the LTA shows its faith in him first. "It doesn't make sense if you can't get the funding, if you can't be in the team, then how can someone want you to play for your country? To play Davis Cup, it's different. You're playing for a team and you want to feel like the team has the backing, supports you, believes in you."

The LTA's chief executive, Roger Draper, defended the decision to cut Bogdanovic's funding and said missing out on a Wimbledon wild card could be a blessing. "It might not be a bad thing for him to qualify," Draper said. "Alex has huge talent and is still in his prime. I wouldn't write him off. He can still do some damage."

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