Djokovic calls British players 'spoiled' – except for Murray

NOVAK Djokovic has accused British tennis players of being "spoiled". The Australian Open champion believes his contemporaries in this country lack the "hunger" to succeed because they have "everything on a plate".

Speaking to BBC's Inside Sport programme, the 20-year-old said: "I don't know if I should have the expression 'spoiled', but in the UK a lot of kids are a little bit spoiled because of all the conditions they have... and they don't work hard enough.
"If you have perfect conditions and everything you want, you get a little bit spoiled and then you don't want to work as hard as you're supposed to. You don't have the hunger for success because you have everything on the plate.

You still have a lot of potential. You just have to find the right moment and change the mentality of the coaches and the kids."

Andy Murray, ranked 20th, is the only British male in the top 200. Serbia, meanwhile, have three players in the top 100. Britain do not even have a single player in the women's top 100, while Serbia have two in the top five.

Djokovic insists Murray, who is a friend and rival from their junior days and who developed outside of the British system, can never be described as "spoiled". The pair were neck and neck as youngsters but Djokovic has surged to the top of the game in the past year, winning his first grand slam title in January, while Murray is still finding his feet after a serious wrist injury.

Djokovic, who thrashed the Scot at the Monte Carlo Masters this week, expects his fellow 20-year-old to join him in the top five.

He said: "He has enough quality, enough talent, and enough potential to be a top-five player, and everybody expects him to do that. But obviously he has so much pressure on him because Great Britain needs a champion, badly, and a Wimbledon champion especially, so they expect him to do that in the next couple of years, and obviously that creates some pressure.

"But, throughout his entire career, he's been mentally a very strong player, so I can expect that he's going to come fast to the top five." Asked whether Murray was a future Wimbledon champion, Djokovic simply replied: "Yes."

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal became the first player in the Open era to win four consecutive Monte Carlo Masters titles when he beat world No1 Roger Federer in the final for the third year in a row. Before yesterday's 7-5, 7-5 win, only New Zealand's Anthony Wilding had won four straight titles in Monte Carlo, back in 1914.

Nadal, 21, who improved his personal record against Federer to 9-6 (7-1 on clay), said: "It's unthinkable, winning here for the fourth year in a row."

Federer, who lost his Australian Open crown in January and had to wait until last Sunday to claim his first title of the year in Estoril, said: "He's a tough player on clay. Maybe my attacking game did not work so well. I'm still close (to beating him]. It's not getting much easier but I am right there and it's a good thing."