Andy Murray has crossed the Channel home to grass, while the LTA charabanc has decamped here. There are four coaches and two conditioning experts to cover Britain's five participants in the boys' singles at the French Open, which seems a bit excessive, though you can understand why Paul Hutchins, the head of men's tennis, might be excited that his son, Ross, is into the last 16 of the men's doubles, having been the final direct acceptance into the draw.

The grass-court season bursts into life in Surbiton today, where there will be more interest on who is on the sidelines than those trying to find their feet. Brad Gilbert is to remain coaching Alex Bogdanovic until the US Open and Peter Lundgren, Great Britain's Davis Cup coach until he resigned from the LTA for personal reasons a couple of months ago, has returned to the fold with Marcos Baghdatis, the world No18 from Cyprus. It is a tremendous opportunity for the Swede — who coached Bogdanovic at the Australian Open four months ago — to rehabilitate and one that makes the timing of his departure from the LTA all the more perplexing.

Still, the governing body has enough money swirling around in the coffers to fill at least one Eurostar carriage. According to Ernests Gulbis, the youngest player left in the men's singles at Roland Garros, the Latvian Tennis Federation received 3,000 Lats — “That's about €5,500 [about £4,300],” he said — from the national Government last year. “And with that, you can't even organise two tournaments.”

One can understand the LTA's despair when another poor relation finds a player to celebrate — and Gulbis is well worth raising a glass to — but again we are left to wonder how it is that little Lativa can unearth such a talent as the 19-year-old red-head who announced himself to the world in Paris a year ago, trouncing Tim Henman in the first round.

By reaching the fourth round of last year's US Open, Gulbis broke into the top 50 and is heading back in that direction after a spell of injuries dropped him to No 90. Michael Llodra choked on the dust raised by his dancing feet yesterday, losing 6-4, 7-6, 6-3.

Gulbis decided not to play in either the Masters tournaments in Rome and Hamburg last month, preferring to work on his physical conditioning and technique with Karl-Heinz Wetter, his new coach. The effect has been profound, for he has dropped just one set in four rounds. Now comes the test of tests, against Novak Djokovic, the No 3 seed from Serbia, with whom he used to practise when they were 12-year-olds at the Niki Pilic Tennis Academy in Munich.

Djokovic was never really threatened on an expectant Court Philippe Chatrier yesterday by Paul-Henri Mathieu, of France, claiming a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 success.

Rafael Nadal's 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Fernando Verdasco, his Spanish compatriot, ensures him a meeting in the last eight with Nicolas Almagro, another Spaniard and conqueror of Murray.