On Tennis: Croatian Mario Ancic was asked after his fourth-round win at Roland Garros why it was that, with a federation that's an organisational shambles and a population of only four-and-a-half million, his country can consistently produce top-class players and even win the Davis Cup, writes Johnny Watterson.

Ancic didn't know how to answer the question. All that he could say was that it was true and that his country was full of talented players.

"We have an unbelievable tradition in tennis and now it's even better because we have three guys in the top 100 and then we had a guy who won junior Roland Garros last year.

"I was very lucky. I was helped by a management company. Unluckily, it is up to individuals to find solutions. I went to practice very young. Ivan (Ljubicic) was in Italy, Karlovic as well had to go away.

"You know that is just the way. It probably makes you tougher too."

Ancic played Davis Cup against Ireland a few years ago in Fitzwilliam as a young teenager and even then you could see the talent. But what happened to Ancic up to that point, and importantly what happened to him from the age of 16 onwards, has made him what he is today - the 12th-ranked player in the world.

He is not alone among the world's top players as someone who has had to struggle before success came his way.

The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, famously came from a Los Angeles ghetto, Compton.

The American James Blake, who has recently caused ripples, suffered curvature of the spine as a child that forced him to wear a back brace 18 hours a day. He then almost paralysed himself in a freak accident during which he slipped and hit a steel net post with his head. He was the eighth seed here this year.

Ljubicic was a refugee from Banja Luka, who was brought up in Italy.

The young Israeli player Martina Hingis struggled to beat at the weekend, Shahar Peer, recently finished her compulsory military training. Again Peer has come from an environment that has no tradition of tennis.

The chief executive of Tennis Ireland, Des Allen, has been in Paris the last few days, talking with European heads of the sport about development.

Most of the seed money that has been spent by Tennis Europe recently has gone to Eastern Europe, helping young players travel, acquire good coaches and generally dedicate their lives to tennis.

Ireland has had good junior players over the years - yet none have been able to break through to Grand Slam tennis.

It's the same in Britain, where they pump millions into the game. Tim Henman and Andy Murray have been the only successes. Greg Rusedski had an English mother but was Canadian-born and bred.

The rumours are that the Serbian Novak Djokovic has approached the LTA about playing for Britain and, be sure, the motivation would be a slice of the profit the Wimbledon event makes each year.

It's unlikely Ireland will be approached by world-class players, but the constant refrain from stars such as Ancic is that they have to be tough because not being tough means not surviving and there are no college degrees to fall back on.

Ireland, like Britain, has talent, but what Ireland lacks is a significant number of kids with nothing to lose by dedicating themselves completely to tennis because the alternative is often nothing else. And we have no Berkeley, no Stanford, no Harvard.

Every year at Wimbledon there are stories of European players sleeping in camper vans because they cannot afford London prices for hotels.

A few years later you notice their names again after they have taken a run from the qualifying tournament into the fourth round.

Now they are in the hotels. Being a successful tennis player is not easy.

It's not all about funding and it's not just about talent. It's about acquiring a particular mindset. A very tough childhood may not be everyone's cup of tea and it guarantees little.

But, as Ancic says, "it makes you tougher".