Sharapova warns British tennis to be patient in looking for champions

Maria Sharapova spoke to reporters yesterday ahead of her effort to win Wimbledon

"Every time you go to a grand slam you kind of see those developments and yousee that they hire the best coaches and have the best facilities and they do everything in order to produce great talent."

But despite building the £40million National Tennis Centre at Roehampton and recruiting a galaxy of star coaches, Britain still has only two players in the respective world top hundreds - men's number 11 Andy Murray and women's number 93 Anne Keothavong.

"Unfortunately, this is not an overnight process. You can't get ahead of yourself. Everything takes time to develop and you don't just become a Wimbledon champion overnight," said the Russian, who left her mother at the age of seven to move to Florida with her father to develop her game.

"We found ways to get help in different areas. It definitely wasn't easy and it wasn't given to us but we found it one way or another."

The seemingly endless production line of top players from eastern Europe raises a big question mark over whether too much is provided for British hopefuls.

"I'm not quite sure. I can only speak of myself and the girls that came out of Russia," said Sharapova, back in Wimbledon for the UK launch of sports drink Gatorade at a local school.

"We have a lot of girls in the top 20 but what's really interesting about the whole thing is that everybody developed their talent in different ways. We weren't all packed in one team, developed one way and given the same food and catering.

"We were all developed in different parts of the world, some went to Spain, some stayed in Russia, I went to the United States and we were all able to find ways to make it to the top which is quite fascinating.

"We were very committed to the sport and we worked very hard and the number one thing is the belief - the hard work and the belief in yourself and the desire to go out there and do everything you can to be a champion."

Next week she will at the All England Club, bidding to become champion again.

Sharapova knows it will be tough to turn the tables on the Serbian duo of
current world number one Ana Ivanovic and number two Jelena Jankovic, who
knocked her off the top of the rankings by reaching the French Open final, won
by Ivanovic.

But she added: "My chances are just as good as anybody's, everybody in the
draw can be a challenger and it's all about who takes their chances and who
doesn't."