Wimbledon 2009 was not an hour old. The sun was shining and the sky blue. All seemed set fair for the future of British tennis. Daniela Hantuchova, formerly a top 10 player, was a set and a break down to 15-year-old Laura Robson. At any moment the jazz band positioned next to the Champagne Bar would have been perfectly justified in striking up with Rule Britannia.

Fortunes, like the weather, can change rapidly in SW19 and how different the mood come the end of play a day later. Of the 11 Britons contesting the men’s and women’s singles, nine of them courtesy of the charitable wild cards that guaranteed each £10,750 of first-round prize money, only two remained. Andy Murray aside, the state of British tennis was once again perceived as a national disgrace.

There are certain annual traditions around this time of year. Druids drift to Stonehenge, rain falls on rock fans at Glastonbury and the Lawn Tennis Association’s spin doctors plan damage limitation exercises. Justification of such failures is tricky when the LTA’s income in the past year amounts to £47m.

As the Wall Street Journal said last week: “There are many theories explaining the British drought — from mismanagement by tennis’s governors, to class prejudice against the game, to a lack of work ethic among players. What particularly rankles British fans about their national tennis failure, though, is that it is so well funded. Over the years, critics have accused British tennis players of being a bit soft and have suggested that the money, far from helping, has hindered their progress.”

The Serbian Tennis Federation’s budget is about 2.5% of Britain’s, yet four players from the Balkan nation reached Wimbledon’s third round. Remember, though, that Novak Djokovic went to Munich aged 12 to further his tennis education, Jelena Jankovic followed the familiar route to Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy in Florida at a similar age and Ana Ivanovic has been backed by Swiss money since her early teens.

Sitting courtside as Robson’s fortunes diminished was Britain’s head coach of women’s tennis, Nigel Sears. As somebody whose idea of a good day off is to compete in a triathlon, Sears was not in any way physically taxed dashing about to other courts as Anne Keothavong, Katie O’Brien, Mel South and Georgie Stoop also fell. Emotional stress was another matter and that increased on Thursday when Elena Baltacha was defeated by a lower-ranked Belgian she had beaten with consummate ease twice previously.

Sears has coached players such as Hantuchova, Amanda Coetzer and Barbara Schett on the higher level of the WTA tour. If there are shoots of recovery in the overall standard of British tennis, they are among those under Sears’ remit.

When Roger Draper became LTA chief executive a little more than three years ago, promising measured revolution, the top-ranked woman was Keothavong at 146 and there were only two more in the top 250. Now Keothavong is placed 51st and the next two British names are just outside the top 100. In addition there are two more in the top 200.

“I am not prepared to say I am satisfied but it does get to me when we are perceived as doing a bad job simply on the results at Wimbledon,” said Sears, who took full responsibility for women’s tennis after the departure of Belgian Carl Maes in March. “Obviously I can’t be happy and I’m not pretending to be but I would really like people to understand what has gone on the rest of the year. I also want them to be reassured that we are only interested in the players who are totally committed to becoming much, much better.”

What makes Sears optimistic is the gaggle of youngsters alongside Robson: Guernsey’s Heather Watson, who performed well at the Australian Open in January; 16-year-old Tara Moore from Yorkshire, who beat the French Open junior runner-up this month; and the statuesque Jocelyn Rae from Nottingham, who has missed much of the year while growing to 6ft 2in but is determined to make up for lost time.

Below this group there are more. “I refuse to rave about these youngsters yet because ultimately they have to make the transition to senior tennis and that is a huge jump,” said Sears. “Even Laura has so much still to do. However, I know we have got a shot.”

All that said, coaching standards leave much to be desired and tennis participation is dropping. According to the British Market Research Bureau, the number of adults who play tennis regularly has fallen to 750,000 in 2009 from 950,000 in 2003. What’s worse, the number aged 11-14 who play weekly dropped 32% to 190,000.