Britain's top women tennis players were told today to stop blaming coaches and the LTA for their shortcomings and start showing some bottle.

Alan Jones, straight-talking coach of British No. 1 Elena Baltacha, delivered his damning verdict as his charge tries to keep home hopes alive in the Hastings Direct Championships at Eastbourne.

Third-ranked Brit Jane O'Donoghue, Anne Keothavong (4), Katie O'Brien (6) and Rebecca Llewellyn (9) all crashed out in straight sets in the first round of qualifying on Saturday.

The procession continued yesterday with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 defeat in the first round proper for British No. 2 Amanda Janes against French eighth seed Nathalie Dechy.

That leaves Baltacha to keep the Union Jack fluttering today against 33-year-old former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez.

Jones, who guided Jo Durie to fifth in the world, said: "I saw a quote from Tim Henman last week that for too long the LTA and coaches have been blamed.

"Why don't the players take more responsibility?

"I think people need to be much more single-minded, much more committed to their own cause as opposed to relying on the LTA who, in their generosity, have for years kept a lot of mediocre players in the game.

"It's about motivation from within, I've always argued that. Go back to Roman times, tennis is much more gladiatorial than people realise.

"I remember when Jo was elevated to a massive court at the US Open. She was playing an American and there were 15,000 people baying for her blood.

"It's a self-sufficient sport. You need people to give you knowledge but have you got the character, the guts, the will, the stomach for the battle?"

Baltacha has fought off a liver complaint to rise to 121 in the world but she still had to rely on a wild card into the main draw.

"Bally's ranking wouldn't have got her in qualifying here, that's the real world," Jones said. "Players are not achieving enough on the tour to get their ranking high enough.

"There is huge sympathy out there for Bally because not many people have the liver condition that she has and people instinctively warm to her but the bottom line is her opponents aren't going to take any notice of that. They are going to beat the hell out of her."

Jones is backing LTA performance director David Felgate to eventually turn things around. "What is now beginning to happen is a far more professional approach coming from head office," he said. "Therefore the requirements on the pack' are going to be much tougher than ever before but you cannot make a silk purse out of a pig's ear.

"Historically we've had a lot of British tennis players that I think are trying quite hard but simply aren't good enough."

It was painful viewing for Felgate as he watched Janes, the world No. 221, destroyed by Dechy in only 63 minutes on a windswept centre court.

Left-hander Janes refused to blame the tricky conditions for her error-strewn showing. "I've played lots of county weeks down here when the wind has been stronger," she said.

"Even when I came to volley I missed. There were some inexplicable errors I wasn't happy with. I know I can play well on grass and it's just disappointing when you don't really feature much. I had hoped to make things a bit more difficult for her."

Janes has another big match next month when she marries Dominic Keen, followed by a reception for 200 guests at Wimbledon.

She will consider her future after that. "I've pitched myself around all sorts of tournaments to get my ranking down and it just hasn't happened," she said. "It's very frustrating but I am certainly not making any decisions about anything until I have played the whole grass court season."

Russian fifth seed Vera Zvonereva joined Dechy in round two with a straight sets victory against Czech world No. 31 Nicole Vaidisova.