He can get Jamie Baker, the Great Britain Davis Cup player, an hour-long hit in Pete Sampras’s back garden but what is he like at transmutation? Paul Annacone says he has a tendency towards the “macro” and given the form in which British tennis finds itself at the end of a year of upheaval, it is probably just as well that he is a “big picture” kind of guy.

In the middle of another week of tennis tales of the unexpected, it was rather overlooked that Annacone, the 44-year-old American, signed on the dotted line to remain as the head coach of the British men’s game for three more years, a task to which he will devote three quarters of his year. His employer, the LTA, said it was a long-term commitment and if it is happy with three quarters of anyone’s time, should anyone else question it?

It is fine, just so long as the money being handed out elsewhere by the governing body is commensurate with whatever 75 per cent of Sampras’s former coach is worth. After all, to reach the levels where Annacone has been used to plying his trade, nothing less than absolute dedication is required and there are many people in the British game willing to give everything it takes but who are denied appropriate assistance because their faces do not fit.

Annacone describes his task as a “broad-stroke overview”. He will utilise his time across all levels of British tennis, dipping in and out of wherever he feels best suited, be it with the younger element – those 12 to 15-year-olds on which so much hope is being pinned – or assisting those striving to make more positive inroads into the professional game at present.

“Without wishing to sound like a broken record, the hardest thing for anyone to have is patience,” he said. “The LTA is striving to bring about a big cultural switch in Britain and it is going to be a long process. We need to look at the way players are taught, to help them have an understanding of exactly what they are trying to do and, the biggest challenge of all, to increase the size of the participation pie, so that we have more numbers in the sport with more highly talented kids playing.

“We also have to set up a system much more likely to regenerate through different eras, so that there will be a steady stream of kids coming through, the younger ones replacing those who have made the grade because there is a system in place that is appealing for them to want to be in it.

The goals and the motives of the people working at the LTA are genuine and heartfelt. And I hope we can get across to the fans and the media that patience is required.

“I also think we need to see a greater degree of hunger in British kids. If they aren’t hungry and don’t believe in the people who are helping them, they won’t get there. It is about persevering through adversity, we see it all the time in kids from countries like Argentina, who haven’t had much help and fight for all their worth. Those countries who are successful is a result of either something cultural or in the coaching.”

Annacone built his reputation on keeping Sampras happy enough that he won Wimbledon on a yearly whim and was the No 1 player in the world, before buoying Tim Henman through the best period of his career, when he reached French and US Open semi-finals in 2004. Now comes the bare-knuckle stuff, helping to bash British tennis into semi-decent shape.

What might help in the short term is for the LTA - and Annacone was as guilty as anyone in the first instance – to stop setting unattainable targets such as “we’ll have x number of players in the top 100 by y date”, cease from alienating those who work worthily and for a comparative pittance in independent schemes and spend more of the cash that Wimbledon earns where it is most required rather than filling the National Tennis Centre with more jobsworths than you can shake a Rafael Nadal bicep at.

Rafael Nadal overcame a sluggish start to beat Richard Gasquet 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening match of the Masters Cup in Shanghai. The Spaniard, ranked No 2 in the ATP Race, looked slow and subdued during the first set against the Frenchman, although he claimed he was feeling “perfect”. “Every match is very difficult because you play only against the best,” Nadal said. “So I start with doubts. But later I play more aggressive. I finish much better.” Novak Djokovic, the Serb, ranked No 3, failed to recover from a first-game break against David Ferrer, of Spain, ranked No 6, and collapsed to a 6-4, 6-4 defeat.