Gordon Brown is anxious to prove that he is doing things differently from Tony Blair. But as he announced his campaign to encourage school sport yesterday he showed a liking for the sporting photo-op that echoed the feats of his predecessor.

Mr Blair is a keen tennis player, often playing with Lord Levy, his former fundraiser. But yesterday his successor displayed his prowess on the court for the cameras, particularly his strong serve.

Mr Brown is an enthusiastic tennis player and, appearing at the West London Academy, a school that specialises in sport, he unleashed a couple of fierce aces as the younger Cabinet members accompanying him, James Purnell and Ed Balls, knocked the ball around more gently with some of the pupils.

The Prime Minister, a keen rugby player in his youth, has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of most sports, although football comes first. A supporter of Raith Rovers – he dug into his own pocket when the club hit financial trouble recently – Mr Brown reels off statistics about the records of British clubs in the same way that he used to read out public borrowing figures during his Budget speeches.

Yesterday he joked with older children about their football allegiances. He told Dame Kelly Holmes that he had found a few Arsenal supporters and she responded by giving them high-fives.

Mr Brown takes the politics of sport seriously. Soon after London won the right to stage the 2012 Olympic Games, he was promoting an England bid to stage the football World Cup in 2018, and has already published a Treasury feasibility study showing how it can be done.

If he wins the next General Election, Mr Brown will probably be at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics as Prime Minister. He is believed to be in favour of calling a General Election next year.

Victory next year would mean that in four years’ time Labour could go to the country asking for a fifth term on the back of a successful Olympics.

The importance Mr Brown attaches to sport was shown by his appointment of Gerry Sutcliffe, a long-time ally, as his Sports Minister. Mr Sutcliffe could have been in line for a more senior job, but Mr Brown regards him as a safe pair of hands. Mr Sutcliffe, who still plays football, jumped at the chance.

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