The announcement of Wimbledon’s smallest surplus in 14 years did not make that much of an impact in Shrewsbury yesterday. There, as the players gathered for the men’s Challenger tournament, the most diverting conversation piece involved Brad Gilbert and what is arguably the most inconceivable of his varied challenges in the sport.

The revamping of Gilbert’s contract so that he works for 20 weeks next year at the behest of British tennis requires him to concentrate mostly on Alex Bogdanovic, the British No 2, and “others in his age group”. Bogdanovic said yesterday that he was “unbelievably excited” at the chance of spending time with Gilbert.

That is how the Lawn Tennis Association has responded to the prospect of losing the man that it touted as the best in the business when it contracted him for three years only 16 months ago, and that is how it must react in the light of the revelation that, while the All England Championships remain a remarkable money-spinner, they do not deliver as much into the LTA’s coffers as they once did.

Because of an age-old agreement, Wimbledon releases its surplus to the LTA. This year that figure is precisely £25 million, £500,000 down on last year and hovering around the mark that it has been at for a few years since it peaked at £33 million in 1998.

That the LTA has received nearly £320 million in the past 11 years, a period in which British tennis has gone from a 25-year high of men’s players in the top 500 to a 25-year low in the two years that the present hierarchy has been in place, poses serious questions.

Those concerns were far from Bogdanovic’s mind as he prepared for his first-round match in snowflecked Shropshire today before he heads to Tampa, Florida, where Gilbert and Paul Annacone, who has signed a three-year extension to his contract as head men’s coach at the LTA, are to oversee a training camp for British players.

Bogdanovic, 23, had an interrupted second half of the year because of problems with his back and elbow and is ranked outside the world’s top 150. He has come to life with the news that Gilbert is to spend much of his commitment to the British game next year overseeing his progress.

Not only that, Peter Lundgren, the Swede who is also the Great Britain Davis Cup coach, will accompany Bogdanovic to his first two events next year, up to the Australian Open, for which he will attempt to qualify, and then through a series of clay-court events before the Davis Cup tie against Argentina in Buenos Aires in early February. “I’ve already spent a week at Brad’s house in California,” Bogdanovic said. “He’s such a positive guy, such a great motivator. I know I have it in me to break into the top 100 and the team I have supporting me is about as good as it could get.”