THE normally cloistered corridors of the LTA echoed to the sound of the wrecking ball yesterday when Roger Draper marked six weeks as chief executive by sacking his two highest-profile members of staff. David Felgate, charged with lifting the levels of British performance, and Rebecca Miskin, who spurred the assault on making the sport more accessible, bit the dust.

As the two foremost lieutenants in the later period of John Crowther, the unlamented former chief executive, they shuddered when Draper — who said his determination was to be a radical alternative — was brought back to the LTA, but they could not have imagined a downfall quite so brutal.

Felgate was Tim Henman’s coach for the best part of nine years and it was at the behest of the former British No 1 that he was called in three years ago to oversee the production of performance players. Henman was one of the first people that Draper called yesterday — Andy Murray and Greg Rusedski were next — to tell of his old mentor’s departure.

Unfortunately for Felgate, production stagnated and though there are more players with a world ranking now than when he took over from Patrice Hagelauer, the Frenchman, most are at the low end of the scale where success is as rare as hen’s teeth.

His belief in the virtues of a National Tennis Centre, the last bricks of which are almost cemented, was at direct variance with Draper, who was one of two members of the LTA executive board, in his former spell at the association, to vote against it. One senses that if the new chief executive could pull the edifice down, he would. But it cost £39 million, a reckless piece of misjudgment.

Miskin was brought in four years ago as the director of tennis operations, to shake Britain’s clubs into line and attempt to give tennis more street cred and vitality. Draper is not for gimmicks.

Now comes the imperative for restructure. David Lloyd, the former Great Britain Davis Cup player, captain and now multi-millionaire entrepreneur, has made it known that he wants a role in the sport in Britain but does not wish to be subservient to the LTA. He wrote to Draper last week suggesting that the association should out-source their performance programme — “something that happens in all companies”, he said. “He [Draper] has done the hard bit [sacking Felgate] — now comes the easy bit, picking up the phone to me. It’s an unbelievable opportunity to bring in the right people.”

The LTA has let it be known that it intends to entice “world-class people” into its leadership structure. Lloyd fits that bill as someone who has an inimitable track record for setting the strategy and employing those who can deliver on it. He is a must. The prospect of Carl Maes, the Belgian former coach to Kim Clijsters, who worked for a short spell at the LTA and left to join the Esporta group of clubs, returning to the fold is strong, just as Mark Petchey, who was relieved of his coaching duties with Murray last month, would be intrigued at a different opportunity at the sport’s heart.

What matters most is that tennis fights its corner at the grass roots of athletic development. Only when the right people are recruited in proper places at the start of a player’s education — and paid appropriately — can Britain hope to develop those to share a stage with Murray. No replacement for Felgate will have a leg to stand on if he is to be measured by results over the next five years. It requires a decade.

In three weeks, Rafael Nadal will come to Britain to play at Queen’s Club and Wimbledon. The LTA could do worse than pay for the Spaniard to visit the inner cities, the regions, anywhere, to show aspiring players in Britain, their parents and coaches, what being a success today is all about. If they cannot be like him, they cannot make it.

Andy Murray claimed only his second ATP tour victory on clay in beating Gaël Monfils, the former world junior No 1 from France, 6-4, 6-1 in the Hamburg Masters Series event yesterday. Murray now faces James Blake, the No 5 seed. Greg Rusedski lost 6-1, 6-1 to Gilles Simon, of France.