Clay central to Academy's plans in the search for champions

The story goes that Mrs Newhouse, bored one 1959 day in her palatial New York apartment, asked her husband, Sam, if he would be so kind as to pop out and buy her Vogue magazine. No doubt even more bored than she was, Mr Newhouse went down to the offices of the publication and carried out her wishes – quite literally.

Keith Sohl's 1990 story is a little less grand, not to mention expensive, but it transformed his family's fortunes just the same. Tired of having to fight to find a place where his tennis-mad son could practise, Sohl woke up one day and decided to buy a court. "I was so disillusioned," the 54-year-old says, "that I felt my only alternative was to bring tennis to my son rather than try to take him to tennis."

After a little more Sohl searching, he realised that other parents across the south of England felt the same sense of frustration. It dawned on him that there was a need for more than just one court. Sohl went to work. First, he asked Sutton Council in Surrey for a piece of land. Then came the tricky bit. "Raising the money was tough," he says. "I persuaded the council to give us £400,000, and also received £500,000 from the Lawn Tennis Association." But that was not enough, so Sohl put his money where his mouth was, too. "I mortgaged the house," he says. "That's how much I believed in this."

There were times when Sohl, the managing director, wondered if he had not taken too big a gamble. "Put it this way," he says, "I was 43 and in a good job with IBM when I took on this massive job, so you could say I had a pretty serious mid-life crisis. Things have worked out, but it was something of a leap into the unknown at the time."

At least Sohl found comfort in the fact that the project was having a positive effect on his son. "Everything we were doing was of benefit to James," he says. "I could see it was helping him develop into a good player, so I knew we were on the right track." James, who once had an ATP doubles ranking, has now given up playing on the circuit to help run the centre.

The Academy is an independently managed organisationworking in partnership with the LTA to provide the right playing and living facilities for up-and-coming stars such as Julie Pullin and Alex Bogdanovic. It tells you everything about the image of the business that a number of high-profile LTA coaches, including Jeremy Bates, as well as players like Wayne Arthurs, the Australian who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon this year, use the facilities on a weekly basis.

There is residential accommodation for 40 players. A sizeable expansion took place two years ago, when eight clay courts were built and six indoor courts added (there are a further 10 outdoor and five indoor). "Clay was central to our strategy," Sohl says. "Grass apart, there are only really two surfaces, acrylic and the red stuff. It seemed to me that, with Europe producing 65 per cent of the world's top tennis players, and with 65 per cent of all professional tournaments being played on clay, if we were going to be serious about taking these kids further, we needed the clay courts."

Sohl's idea is a good one – success breeds success. But many parents will be entitled to feel aggrieved that the LTA have not already reached a similar conclusion. "I think that part of the problem is that it is so hard to change the culture overnight," he says. "Because of the way tennis is perceived by most in this country, it is difficult to persuade private clubs to build clay courts. They require a lot of maintenance and, if the club is designed mainly for leisure purposes, it is much easier to have all-weather courts."

Herein lies the crux of the problem. Clubs in other countries, such as France, Sweden and Spain, are set up to cater for aspiring children. Throughout most of the Continent, the emphasis is on competition rather than social activity. "In a sense," Sohl explains, "that's why we're happy to be a small, independent ship that can switch direction very quickly and respond to people's ever-changing tennis needs."

The Academy is run on a pyramid basis, the idea being that a broad base of juniors will rise through the ranks until an élite band of internationals emerges. Ultimately, though, the plan must be to unearth a few Tim Henmans.

"Ours is a two-pronged strategy," Sohl explains. "On the one hand, we try to trawl the local community to bring in players to develop; and on the other, we aim to attract talents from the county or the region. In the latter case, our prime concern is to create a pool of top-quality players who can play each other on a regular basis without having to travel the length and breadth of the country."

Bearing in mind the Academy is a private venture that relies entirely on court fees and individual memberships to survive, this is not the perfect solution if Britain is serious about producing a long list of Top-100 players. In an ideal world – France is a model in question – the tennis authorities would create such a centre and make it available to all children.

"We are offering an alternative while British tennis mentalities change," Sohl ventures. You sense it could be a long wait.