Despite the encouraging signs of the past fortnight, the report card for British tennis over the past seven weeks of frenetic activity sees it registering around five-and-a-half out of 10, with the message that it could still do much, much better.
One of the more impressive aspects of a promising Davis Cup captaincy debut for Leon Smith was that, in the wake of GB’s 5-0 win over a weak Turkey team at Eastbourne, he clearly recognises that this is just the start of a long road.
Only those with selective amnesia will forget that last month we were talking about Britain’s worst ever Wimbledon, some sketchy performances prior to that and confusion over wildcards.
Captain Marvel: Great Britain's James Ward is given advice by leader Leon Smith (left) during the Davis Cup match with TurkeyYet there is definitely a more positive air blowing through the sport, a result of encouraging junior results and the thoroughly professional dispatching of the Turks.
By the time of the next Davis Cup tie — not until early March next year when further progress back towards the World Group can be made — things are likely to have improved a little further.
The early signs are that Smith is a good appointment. What he did to stop the rot in the Davis Cup was shrewdly assemble four of the British game’s most solid citizens — James Ward, Jamie Baker, Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski — to do the job.
Compared to what John Lloyd had to put up with in the last five defeats it was different.
There was no worrying about walking on eggshells around Andy Murray or stress about his highly strung relationship with his brother, or about whether Alex Bogdanovic would implode under pressure, or about Dan Evans’s off-court activities.
For British tennis, the set-up was refreshingly free of neurosis. Moreover, the coaching staff was largely young and British; people who care deeply about the state we are in. Baker praised their ‘meticulous’ approach.
Double trouble: Colin Fleming (top left) and Ken Skupski (top right) battle for GB against TurkeyThat said, even the Turks’ No 1 player Marsel Ilhan was very disappointing, and to make serious headway in the competition it is all going to come back to Murray Jnr and unearthing a second high-class singles player.
It is tolerable for Murray to sit out the Davis Cup at this very low level, (although he will have to play at least once in the competition in the next two years to make himself eligible for the London Olympics).
He ought to be a bit more sensitive, however, about keeping his head down when he is sitting out ties.
If he is meant to be resting then fine, but seeing him pop up on things like James Corden’s excruciating World Cup show and fulfill sponsor commitments at HQ in Roehampton while GB are playing or preparing does not sit well.
Oliver Golding burst into the public consciousness last week by reaching the junior semi-finals at Wimbledon, beating world No 1 Jason Kubler en route.
Apart from his major weapons, like a near 130mph serve, the 16-year-old from Twickenham obviously has a huge passion for the sport, as evidenced by what he did last week.
Mr Tennis: Oliver Golding has gone from the heady-heights of a Wimbledon semi-final to a Middlesex League match for his local clubFar from basking in the glory of his run at SW19, on Wednesday Golding turned out for his club, the Lensbury, in a Middlesex League match away to Pinner.
This week he will play the Futures level event at Frinton before playing some top junior events leading into the US Open. His fellow semi-finalist Laura Robson will also be in action this week, in the $25,000 (£17,000) tournament at Foxhills in Woking.
It was good to see that Golding was not the only junior refusing to bask in Wimbledon success.
Victorious boys doubles team Liam Broady and Tom Farquharson refused to change their travel plans so that they could attend the champions’ dinner in Mayfair on the last night of the Championships.
Broady and his father Simon drove straight up to their home in Stockport as they had a flight the following day from Manchester to the Czech Republic, where he was playing in and won a junior event last week.
Farquharson went straight to Ilkley in Yorkshire, where he won a round at the Futures event.
No World Cup woe for WimbledonThe All England Club will be relieved that the final tot-up of figures for the Championships suggests that the event was not significantly harmed by the massive counter-attraction of the World Cup.
The aggregate attendance was the second highest ever at 489,946, despite capacity being reduced to 37,500. That is barely 20,000 off the 2009 all-time record.
Throngs: Numbers of fans following the action at Wimbledon was not significantly affected by the World CupDespite it being a disappointing final, Rafael Nadal’s triumph was witnessed by an average 5.6 million on television, second only to the 7.5m record set last year.
Andy Murray’s biggest audience — for the semi-finals — was down at 7.1m, although he would have been affected by none of his matches running late into primetime.
Strawberry consumption was up 12 per cent, while the biggest selling item on site were the tacky little tennis ball key-rings, 18,000 of them being shifted.
American Taylor Dent set a new tournament record by serving at 148 mph, although some competitors felt the speed guns were not consistently accurate.
Brit of the week (An Andy-Murray-free zone)Britain’s Davis Cup team takes the honours, with special mention for Norfolk’s Richard Bloomfield, whose run to the semi-finals of the ATATP event on Rhode Island ended on Saturday night with a 7-6, 6-4 defeat by American Mardy Fish.
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