Former British tennis player Tim Henman is pleased with the influence Sania Mirza is having on youngsters in India, however he feels in order to have a real impact it is imperative to have good singles players.
Mirza partnering Swiss queen Martina Hingis has won her third consecutive women's doubles Grand Slam in Australia last month after conquering US Open and Wimbledon last year. The duo are also on a record 36 match unbeaten streak.
Even though, Henman feels the Hyderabadi player has impressed many young girls to get involved with tennis, he still calls for singles players to really inspire many.
"I think Sania is doing very well. In India she is inspiring a lot of young girls to start playing tennis which is important," he said at the sidelines of 'Road to Wimbledon (RTW)' initiative on Thursday.
"But I think to really have a big impact one need to have singles player, be it in men's or women's game. She [Sania] is certainly having success. But I think if you consider, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, they were dominating in both singles and doubles."
The former Britain player feels the country will be able to produce more singles players if they are first given the chance to play more tennis matches.
"The reality is the lack of success in singles is probably to do with the strength in depth of game. The challenge here is to make your best athletes playing tennis, but here cricket is biggest competitor," said Henman, who has been associated with the RTW since its inception by organising many tennis clinics in different Indian cities.
"In UK it's similar. We have a lot of other sports that children are playing in their schools. We have to get the best athletes playing tennis. Again this emphasizes the point of RTW. It's about accessibility and opportunity and that's always going to be very important," he said.
The RTW is a joint initiative by the AITA and All England lawn Tennis Club (AElTC) through which the Indian players compete to qualify in UK's junior national championship.
The Indian players have dominated the event so far by winning the boys singles title (Siddhanth Banthia and Sacchitt Sharma) in previous two editions and girls singles title (Mahak Jain) last year at the UK's national championship.
Former Britain Davis Cup captain Paul Hutchins, who is also the Tournament Director of RTW, was also present during the event.