Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic believes Britain's lack of tennis success is down to its young players being too "spoiled".

Djokovic told the BBC that young British players do not possess the "hunger" to succeed because they have everything provided for them on a "plate".

"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, so they don't know the real meaning of the tennis, and they don't work hard enough," Serbia's Djokovic told Inside Sport.

"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."

The world number three stunned defending champion Roger Federer in the semi-finals at Melbourne at the start of the year before going onto claim his nation's first-ever Grand Slam singles title.

Djokovic said that Britain's tennis programme, which currently only has world number 19 Andy Murray in the top-100 of the ATP rankings, could turn its prospects around with a shift in mindset.

"You don't have the hunger for the success because you have everything on the plate," Djokovic said.

"I would say this is one of the biggest problems right now, but I think you have enough tennis history and enough people who have a big knowledge about tennis who will recognise the problem, and you still have a lot of potential and everything you need.

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

Though Djokovic criticised Britain's youth as a whole, he refused to hit out against former junior rival and longtime friend Murray, whom he described as a rival for the world's top-five.

"He has enough quality, enough talent, and enough potential to be a top-five player, and everybody expects him to do that," Djokovic said.

"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."

Jeremy Stahl / Eurosport