It is difficult to resist a bit of crystal ball-gazing to wonder what the state of tennis will be — both home and abroad — when London lays claim to the renamed ATP World Tour Final (at present the Tennis Masters Cup being held in Shanghai) for the eight most successful players at the O2 Arena in a year’s time. How much better will Andy Murray be? Will another British player have shown the remotest promise of making the top 100? Will there have been further, unsettling purges of personnel at the LTA?

Murray makes his long-prophesied Masters Cup debut today in a Red group round-robin match against Andy Roddick, feeling snug, but never smug, as he rubs shiny new suits with the best eight of 2008 — minus Rafael Nadal, the world No 1 — as an intriguing year winds down. If the first day’s play is a guide, Murray and his swelling support are in for a treat. Neither of his fellow debutants, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martín Del Potro, prevailed but they gave Nikolay Davydenko and Novak Djokovic, the more experienced pair, respectively, full value for their money earned from their respective 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 and 7-5, 6-3 victories.

Away from the court there have been subtle shifts in administration and none more so than in Britain, where Paul Hutchins was removed from his position as head of men’s tennis without an explanation. Murray was not told, nor his input required into the matter. When Roger Draper, the chief executive of the LTA, decided two years ago to fire David Felgate, the former head of performance, he called Tim Henman to explain the reasons why and to make sure it would not upset the former British No 1 that his one-time coach was to be removed.

There was no such tip of the hat to Murray in Hutchins’s case and this to someone the Scot described yesterday as “a great guy”. Remarkable, too, was Murray’s revelation that Hutchins was “the only person at the LTA who ever came and asked me if I had opinions on anything”. He added: “I’m sad to see him leave.”

Another departure at the top of the game has been pushed through when the LTA thought no one was looking, further evidence of a sport bouncing from one ill-thought decision to another. The matter does not inspire confidence that proper direction is being given to the matter of keeping Great Britain’s Davis Cup hopes alive.

There, as in so much, Murray forges on alone and Roddick, who faces the Scot first, will have noticed the British No 1’s recent game. “Last year, he had a setback with his injury,” Roddick said. “And I remember when he lost to Tsonga in the Australian Open, you guys were ready to deport him. He got over his little hump at Wimbledon this year and now he’s on his way.”