Another £29.2 million fell into the lap of the British game yesterday and it had nothing to do with someone landing a lucky dip at the local Tesco. The enduring success of Wimbledon offered another of the windfalls that challenge the LTA, year after year, to enhance a sporting landscape that remains frustratingly fallow.

Starting on Sunday week, the staging of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 arena in southeast London before a succession of full-house crowds will present another paradox: the country’s ability to host leading tennis events with a sure touch and yet fail to produce players of a credible international standard.

Andy Murray apart, of course. The British No 1 departed the BNP Paribas Masters here at the hands of Radek Stepanek, of the Czech Republic, in the third round yesterday in a curate’s egg of a performance, but he did not appear as crestfallen as one might imagine. London awaits, the niggles are almost out of his system, he is getting nicely grooved, there are ten more days to rest and be ready for when the O2 flag falls and every match is against the seven “best of the rest” in 2009.

Near the end of his 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Stepanek you were not sure whether Murray was lashing the ball with the intent of ending the rallies for the ultimate purpose of winning the match. That has always been this tournament’s problem — that not everyone wants to win it with similar passion. It makes it vulnerable to those intent on preying on the sport to the extent that more and more matches — it has been alleged — are being referred to its integrity unit because they involve strange patterns of play and betting.

Not that Murray is the type of player ever to get involved in anything like that, but after the first set here, who would have wagered a bundle on Stepanek? Not this correspondent. Murray breezed through with ease and the set’s final shot, a burst forward to run down a drop shot and a beautiful cross-court flick, prompted the world No 4 to turn to his corner with a look of “how about that?”

Then, a non-professional cameraman started to take photographs during points and Murray, disturbed, was 3-0 down in the second set. He was never quite in control from that moment on as Stepanek’s craftiness and judicious use of the drop shot kept bearing fruit. From 5-2 down in the final set, Murray clawed back to 5-4 but Stepanek served four first-service beauties from the five he required.

Rafael Nadal also found the going tough, breaking Tommy Robredo to stay in the match before beating his Spanish compatriot 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Though he has only just returned after six weeks spent resting his left wrist and immediately won a tournament in Valencia, Murray believes that he has played enough with the banquet in his back yard to come.

“My goal after coming back was to get in good enough shape to compete well in London and I think that has been achieved,” he said. “What I’ve done in the last couple of weeks has been absolutely perfect.”

The Scot apart, there is one male, Alex Bogdanovic (No 176), in the top 200 in singles, with two women, Katie O’Brien (No 88) and Elena Baltacha (No 89) inside the leading 100 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Success at doubles is regarded as a justification for the governing body to pat itself on the back so it should be noted that there are four men and one woman in their respective top hundreds. This has to be why a host of coaches were in Jersey this week to watch an ATP Challenger event in which no British male got beyond the second round.

All will appear rosy when the curtain goes up at the O2 and a seventh qualifier was confirmed yesterday. Despite his 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 defeat by Robin Söderling, of Sweden, Nikolay Davydenko cannot be caught by any of the four players, including Söderling, who now have a single place to play for in the last three days of this championship.