Mr Motivator blows in to closed world with an open mind and an open door

The Interview - David Felgate: Revolution is in the air yet again for British tennis. Ronald Atkin hears why the new leader feels that this time it might just work

When David Felgate turned up for his first day at the Lawn Tennis Association last Monday he found the place closed. No change there then, the cynics might point out. In mitigation, it should be mentioned that Felgate presented himself at the door of the Baron's Court training centre at 8am without knowing the entry-code digits and with his body clock still ticking away on US time, having flown in to London less than 24 hours earlier.

"I had to wait half an hour until someone else arrived," the LTA's new performance director smiled. It was, you felt, something that would not occur again, and not just because the 39-year-old from Essex now knows how to open the door by himself. Felgate has, as they say of newly elected politicians, hit the ground running in his bid to make Britain a better tennis nation, and there was a discernible buzz about the place on his second day.

A group of players, including Alex Bogdanovich and Arvind Parmar, were massed in the foyer and the Davis Cup captain, Roger Taylor, had turned up to talk to the new supremo. Also on hand was our most successful coach, Tony Pickard, once Stefan Edberg's mentor but now in London helping further the rise up the rankings of his latest client, Anne Keothavong.

The bustle was precisely what Felgate is looking for. "The biggest change I want to see is more enthusiasm and passion in British tennis," he said, rolling a tennis ball from hand to hand in his compact office above the centre's indoor courts. "A bit of vibrancy. That is not enough, but it will be a start. Out of that, success will grow.

"When I worked for the LTA before [as a coach], a lot was happening. When people walked by these windows they knew it was a national training centre, something was going on. That's what I want to get back to. If I walk into an academy at 4.30 in the afternoon I would expect to see kids on court and a coach hollering, a buzz. That's what Nick Bollettieri's place in Florida has, plus numbers. And out of those two things he has had success."

The revolution Felgate is plotting will be of the tracksuit-and-T-shirt variety. That was his chosen apparel for a day teeming with interviews and conferences. "I won't be wearing a tie," he vowed. "I didn't even wear a tie when I came for my interview. A jacket, yes. Tie, no."

He has also taken up the appointment with commendable speed, having generously been released by his former employers, the sports marketing company IMG, from their headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent the last 14 months after the split exactly two years ago from Tim Henman, whom he had coached for nine years. Expectation at the LTA had been that they would have the new man in position by the time Wimbledon rolled round in June. Instead, three weeks after accepting, Felgate is installed in Patrice Hagelauer's old seat.

"I thought it was important to get on with it," he said. "This is a vital time of year. I view the tennis season almost like school terms. September is when the Majors are over, so now I will have time to implement any changes before then." Felgate has spent the past few days touring the academies and training centres and is now off to Spain to assess the facilities set up at La Manga.

"It is important in the first month to meet everybody, behind closed doors, to hear their views. There is a perception in an organisation about what people do, but when you come in you may find they are not in charge of this or that after all.

"This is a huge task, but I realised that. A lot of good stuff was done by Patrice, but you don't see the results of those things straight away. What was done was correct and needed doing. Now we have to take it to another level. When Patrice came in a lot of people thought he would focus on senior tennis. He started lower than that, and he was right, but public perception is about senior tennis and Wimbledon. My short-term goal is to make sure our senior players are doing better than they are.

"I am not saying we can turn these guys into world-beaters, but some should certainly have better rankings. You shouldn't be ranked 600 in the world and be playing Davis Cup. My first emphasis will be to try to get something out of these guys."

An admirable sentiment, but how exactly? "First, get them to buy into what you are trying to achieve. Then it is just about coaching. I really believe that what you say to them helps get the best out of them. Over the last few years we have seemed to do well at junior level and then failed to take it on from there when they become little fish in a big ocean. That is something I will be concentrating on. It is something I did with Tim Henman."

With Felgate at his side, Henman rose to the world's top half-dozen. Though Henman does not number a Grand Slam or a Masters Series title among his victories, it was beyond argument a fruitful association and they remain close, not least because Felgate's American wife, Jan, is still Tim's agent.

So when Hagelauer, the LTA's first-ever performance director, decided to return to France, there was input from our top player about who his replacement might be. He should be British and he should be Felgate, was the gist of it, and since the LTA are not in the business of antagonising their lone home-bred star, the appointment of Felgate was not a cause for surprise.

Though a British boss is, by general consensus, the preferred thing, Felgate insists there remains room for foreign input. "My attitude will be to find the right coach to fit the situation. If he is British it would be nice, but if not he can be a foreigner, I am not worried one way or the other. But we are northern European, of a certain mentality, so I am not sure whether an Italian or Spaniard would work out for us."

The name of Brad Gilbert, a trouper of the men's tour and for a dozen years coach to Andre Agassi, has been raised. "I mentioned Brad's name once because I managed him at IMG," Felgate acknowledged. "But I don't want to get into employing a big name just because it makes a good article in the papers. You would need to have the right players in the right situation to use someone like Brad. We couldn't afford him full-time. Also his expertise is on the Tour, and that's where he wants to be, and right now we don't have anybody who would warrant that type of input."

With no cash worries because of Wimbledon's bounty, there are not many coaches who would be out of Felgate's reach, but he insists it is shortage of talent in this area rather than money which is proving a problem. "How many good coaches are there? I know coaches who, with the right players, could get the right results. But we don't have many of those players. And I don't think there is a whole load of coaches waiting to come in and take jobs with the lower age-groups."

Felgate offers the example that at Leeds, one of the four new youth training academies, the post of head coach has still not been finalised. "People have not been knocking down our door to apply," he said. "There is a lack of interest in the post."

When Felgate, on his appointment, mentioned a quartet of British coaches – Alan Jones, Nigel Sears, Pickard and himself – who had taken a player into the world top 10, it was assumed in some quarters that he would be sitting the other three around a table with him. Well, yes, is his cautious rejoinder. "Everybody knows that we, or they, don't necessarily get on, but what is interesting is their common beliefs. I am not afraid to listen and be open-minded, especially to the views of those three. I do see me having a group of people I talk to on a regular basis, almost like being round a table, but ultimately I have to make decisions myself. Otherwise it would be a complete mess."

That said, Felgate readily agrees that one man cannot do everything, and points to his favourite comparison, the football manager. "Can one man manage everything at Manchester United? No. Does he manage the Under-16s? No. But is he ultimately responsible for what goes on? Yes."

For the moment, his role is a listening one. "I have to listen to everybody, and you can only listen to so many people in one day, otherwise you get blinded."

Above all, what David Felgate will not be wanting to confront is any more closed doors.

Biography: David Felgate

Born: 22 October 1963, in Essex.

Family: Jan (wife), Jack (son), Alice (daughter).

As a player: U-18 national champion before turning pro in 1983. Won one Tour doubles title (1985 in Bordeaux). Total prize money: $44,072.

Best work as a coach: worked with Tim Henman after the British No 1 won the U-18 national title in 1992. Parted company in April 2001 to link up with Belgian Xavier Malisse.

As an administrator: manager of men's national training at the Lawn Tennis Association in 1995-96. The ATP Tour's European board of directors representative since 1998. Currently LTA performance director.