A familiar face was stalking the grimy corridors of the Palais Omnisports this week - Patrice Hagelauer, coach to Yannick Noah when he won the 1983 French Open. Hagelauer was hired to become the director of performance at the Lawn Tennis Association in 1998 - he departed, unfulfilled, four years later and has now been restored to lead the French Federation (FFT) in its determination to retain its foremost position in the hierarchy of world tennis.

A changing of the guard at the FFT has brought openness and experience back to a country that has never gone in for handing its heritage to those of another nation the way Britain has fumbled and fidgeted in the past twenty years, with an Australian Davis Cup captain, a French performance director (Hagelauer) and now, everywhere you turn, a Belgian in a position of technical influence.

Hagelauer had spent three years helping cement the influence of Team Lagardere, the brainchild of Arnaud Lagardere, who runs the family conglomerate which has interests in publishing, media, retail, aerospace and has a love of sport, especially tennis. A number of French players are now represented by the Lagadere group, including Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils and Julien Benneteau, bolstered by a number of quality French coaches.

The FFT watched the Lagadere recruitment drive with a concern that often bordered on paranoia. Now, with Hagelauer - a man of infinite wisdom and knowledge - restored to the federation with Gilbert Ysern, as director-general of the federation and Roland Garros, a sense of calm has descended. A couple of the players who had been working at the Lagadere flagship have crossed the road, literally, to Roland Garros from Stade Jean Bouin, the Lagardere headquarters. Hagelauer emphasises, though, how vital it is for French tennis that every element flourishes.

Chatting with the Net Post, Hagelauer's mantra was plain. "Good coaching, good coaching, good coaching," he said. "It is vital we have this at every level and that one level feeds the next with a clear strategy. In the aspect of coach education we have always been strong (the LTA has had four different directors in the past four years) and those in charge of that programme are excellent people."

There are four elements to the Hagelauer philosophy - regional, national, international and coach education. At regional level, he says - "whatever we do as a nation begins in the clubs and the coaching in the clubs, in every department. This is what I was trying to develop in the UK. The imperative aspect is the junior programme, that those who are in charge of the players at 8, 9 at 12. There can be no mistakes at that age. We need the right ideas, but also we need to listen. It is about building a pathway to excellence.

"Then we have the national programme, with 14 centres of excellent across the country and we have to make sure we take care of those with better management systems. Everybody needs to work together. At the international level there are currently 32 players - double last year's number - who are working at Roland Garros. We have seven players in the top 100, 11 in the top 200 and many other junior players working through the rankings (Note to the LTA: we are only talking singles players here, doubles does not figure). It is important that players like Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra, those with great experience, can mix with the younger ones, because they act as points of reference."

Out of the blue, Hagelauer nominated 30-year-old Arnaud Di Pasquale to become the head of the men's section, with Alexia Dechaume-Balleret, taking on similar responsibilities for the women. "These are people with proven playing track records from the juniors to significant world rankings. With Arnaud, he is going to be responsible for supporting almost 20 players, but he knows them by heart and they know him, there is trust."

From the moment Hagelauer was appointed and said that those working for him are, for the present, going to 'be French and only French', the lines from so many former players were humming. "Yannick 9Noah) told me that I only had to ring him and he would be there. The same is true of Amelie Mauresmo. Everyone wants to be a part of what we are doing. I am so very pleased with that."

And so, unlike the situation in Britain, where many former players with proven coaching track records feel they have no part to play in the sport under its current ownership, where to have been attached to the past is to be treated as a relic, dismissed as an interference rather than someone who might be able to help. It is very sad. And very wrong.

SW19 still the LTA's crown jewel

The All England Club and the LTA were quick off the mark in raising their objections to the recommendations of David Davies' review into events that should be protected for live broadcast on free-to-air television. Their response to the recommendation that the whole Wimbledon championships should be protected would - "severely compromise the Club’s ability to negotiate its TV rights in an open competitive market place".