As Andy Murray had breakfast at his favoured Starbucks near Central Park yesterday, one can imagine the coffee machines at the LTA National Tennis Centre going into overgrind as the leaders in British tennis were deciding how they should respond to the first fully fledged home-grown player to have reached a US Open singles final since Ann Jones in 1967.

“Where do we go from here?” is a cry eerily familiar to those who have chronicled the administration of the sport during the past 25 years. When Max Clifford, the controversial publicist, was recently contacted by the LTA to see what he could offer the governing body in terms of making more people wake up to the glories of tennis, it was clear that desperate times called for desperate measures.

It always seems to happen at moments such as this. A British player succeeds, tennis is everywhere you look and when it is all over one looks around to see if the sport can plug into the electricity generated or whether it will plough on setting futile targets and indulging in empty rhetoric.

If the LTA cannot ride on the back of the brilliance that Murray has displayed at Wimbledon, in winning his first Masters Series event, in Cincinnati last month, and here to generate the interest in British tennis that entices the lead sponsorship partner it desperately seeks, those in charge should step aside and let someone else take the reins.

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Murray is not your polite public schoolboy. He’s a ferocious stand up and be counted Scot

Simon Barnes

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For now we have Murray - having beaten Rafael Nadal, the world No1 and Wimbledon champion, for the first time in six attempts in the semi-finals - playing in his first grand-slam final at 21, which makes him special among British players. Even Fred Perry - his clothing line seems to have had a magical effect on the Scot, who wears it so proudly - was 24 when he reached the first of his eight grand-slam finals, here in 1933. He beat Jack Crawford, of Australia, 6-3, 11-13, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1, a scoreline that underlined the defiance he brought to the game. Very Murray-esque.

Tim Henman was just breaking into the world's top 100 at Murray's age and was not to reach his ranking peak of No4 until he was about to turn 28. On the women's side, Virginia Wade won this title when she was 23 and followed that nine years later by winning Wimbledon in 1977, Silver Jubilee year. Whatever last night's outcome against Roger Federer at Flushing Meadows, Murray has transformed the landscape of the sport in Britain - from where players peaked in their mid-twenties to one where you can contest the biggest matches in the sport at 21 years and four months.

Paul Hutchins, the head of men's tennis at the LTA, spoke yesterday of the test that Murray's success here has presented to the governing body. “It is up to us to use the momentum of what Andy has achieved here in the right way,” Hutchins said. “We have to capitalise on the interest this has generated and the fact that Andy is so young in British terms is a different dimension.

“This is a really big change in our tennis. It is a great privilege for us at the LTA to have someone like Andy as our talisman. We will have him around for at least the next five years challenging for the major titles and that gives us something new to contend with.

“Whether he wins or not, what he has done here crowns everything we thought was possible from him. Andy doesn't get fazed, he has so much confidence in himself, he is certain of his own ability, he is very 'within himself' when he plays. He knows he has the capabilities to beat anyone.”

Hutchins made certain that the junior contingent that played in the US Open got close to Murray, watched his methods, listened and learnt. Marcus Willis, Dan Smethurst and Dan Cox have been seconded into the Great Britain squad for next week's Davis Cup tie against Austria at Wimbledon, to engage further in “the Murray experience”.

As for the beaten Nadal, everyone in the sport should be sent a tape of his post-match interview, indulge in the generosity of his spirit, the remarkable way with which he accepted defeat and the handsome manner of his reaction to Murray. All this when he must have been hurting like hell.

“I accept the losses with the same calm as when I win,” the Spaniard said. “I am disappointed. But at the same time I am happy because I played well here. Probably when I arrived my situation wasn't the best to play a good tournament, with too many tournaments and too many matches on my shoulders [84 in total this year]. I fought well and I had a good tournament, so I go from the US Open with positive things.

“Andy is doing very well. He's having a very good second part of the season - Toronto [where Nadal beat Murray in the semi-finals] and Cincinnati, right now, the finals. So he's a very, very good player. He can do everything.”