Mikhail Youzhny struck himself so forcibly on the forehead with his racket here the other day that he drew blood, which trickled into his eyes. The world No 11 from Russia was not, we were assured, auditioning for a role in British tennis.

Those positions are all taken for the foreseeable future, although the number of LTA hats worn by Paul Annacone, erstwhile coach to Pete Sampras and Tim Henman, doubled when he became Great Britain’s Davis Cup coach in conjunction with his position as men’s head coach yesterday. The resignation of Peter Lundgren, the Swede, for personal reasons provided an opportunity for which Annacone was clearly best suited.

The American, who added three years to his contract in November last year, is not someone who would endorse Youzhny’s head-banging approach. It worked for the Russian when he won seven straight points in the final-set tie-break to beat Nicolás Almagro in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open, although he came unstuck in the fourth round when he was beaten in three sets by Janko Tipsarevic, of Serbia. But how much blood Annacone can draw from the stone that has been British tennis development remains to be seen.

Coincidentally, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced yesterday that Patrick McEnroe, the US Davis Cup captain, is to lead its elite player development programme, a position Annacone filled for a couple of years at the start of the decade before returning to work one-on-one with Sampras.

“Paul was the right person at the right time,” Rick Ferman, the USTA’s executive director at the time, said. “He was relentless in his pursuit of excellence. Paul’s efforts will have a lasting impact on our future high-performance efforts in the United States.”

These are the traits that the LTA has sought to instil in the British game with Annacone’s appointment. It is going to be a hard grind, but the work he is doing with the 12 to 16-year-olds who will form the nucleus of any short-term success at the elite end of the sport has begun to have an effect.

Lundgren’s departure after 18 months in the role is a blow to John Lloyd, the Britain captain, who gave him a glowing personal endorsement. Lundgren, once coach to Roger Federer - and who was given “gardening leave” last summer after he had appeared disorientated when speaking to a group of coaches at the LTA’s National Tennis Centre - is returning to Sweden to care for his father.

Rafael Nadal, the No 2 seed from Spain, recovered from a distracted opening half-hour to subdue James Blake, of the United States, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the semi-final here, where he will play either Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic, or Igor Andreev, from Russia.