LTA rejects Aussie coaches claim

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The Lawn Tennis Association has rejected claims from Tennis Australia that it is trying to lure coaching staff with the offer of large salaries.

Tennis Australia's director of player development Craig Tiley claimed at least four members of his staff had been made offers.

An LTA statement said: "We are unclear where Mr Tiley is coming from.

"We can confirm that none of our top positions will go to anyone currently employed by Tennis Australia."

The LTA has recently employed Brad Gilbert, who has worked with Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, as coach to Andy Murray, and Roger Federer's former coach Peter Lundgren to the British Davis Cup set-up.

The LTA have been very aggressive in recruiting some of our staff and our coaches Craig Tiley,Tennis Australia director of player development

Tim Henman's coach, Paul Annacone, is expected to take the up the post as head of men's tennis.

The statement continued: "We are in the final stages of a worldwide search and recruitment programme to ensure we get the best team in place to deliver real success to the British game.

"We have had an enormous amount of interest from around the world; the recruitment micro-site alone has had more than 25,000 visitors."

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Speaking to the Melbourne Age newspaper, Tiley had earlier said: "The LTA have been very aggressive in recruiting some of our staff and our coaches.

"They've got an international recruiting agency to find the people who are delivering in the other federations from around the world and they've been heavy on the recruitment of our talented people and just enticing them by money.

"You saw the Gilbert offer, you'll soon see some others.

"They are very, very significant, and it's tough for those people to pass that up. If someone said to you 'do you want to triple your money?' well, you'd think hard about it, wouldn't you?"

Tiley added: "It's a constant battle trying to keep staff without constantly matching financial offers, because we're not in the position to be able to do that, especially when you're talking about the exchange rate.

"And nor do we want to get into that game."