Once Henman is gone, Andy Murray will have no choice but to lead his sport from the front, so perhaps it's as well the Scot is the sort who embraces pressure.

Andy Murray is, as usual, a man with a lot on his mind.

Not only will he go into this weekend's Davis Cup tie against Croatia at Wimbledon desperate to play well enough to allow mentor Tim Henman to retire on the highest possible note, but he made it clear yesterday that he is also itching to prove a point about British tennis by getting the national team into the top division of the competition.

It's a lot of responsibility for a 20-year-old but, once Henman is gone, Murray will have no choice but to lead his sport from the front, so perhaps it's as well the Scot is the sort who embraces pressure where others might seek to avoid it.

"It's just really important to prove that you are one of the best teams in the world. This is the first, I'd say, really huge Davis Cup tie that I feel like I'll be playing in," said Murray, who is almost certain to face Marin Cilic in Friday's opening singles rubbers. "Everyone's been saying that British tennis has been struggling and I think if you are in the top 16 teams in the world, that's a pretty good effort.

"We have obviously got a couple of young guys who are doing well; obviously in Jamie his brother we've now got a doubles specialist. If we can just get a couple more singles players to step up and get their rankings a bit higher, we could have a very solid team. There's teams like that which have done well in the past."

Murray also gently teased John Lloyd, his captain, with the suggestion that his job may be on the line if Great Britain do not manage to beat a depleted Croatian team and seal a place in the Davis Cup world group, though that, at least, is not on the line this weekend.

Davis Cup's structure and language are cumbersome and convoluted - Great Britain is currently in the clumsily-titled Euro-African Zone Group 1 - but the consequences of winning and losing are simpler than they appear. Win and you get promoted; lose and you stay down.

"Every country wants to be a part of it the world group," said Jamie Murray, who has clearly been watching a little too much English football.

"It's like the Premier League, all the teams want to get up from the Championship and play in the best league in the world. For us, it's the same thing."

There is no doubt Henman's impending retirement will make it an emotional three days for anyone with even a glancing interest in British tennis, let alone the Englishman himself and the team-mates who still look up to him. Yet that is only part of what will drive on the home team.

Murray especially seems to be relishing a chance to show not just what Henman means to him, but what his sport and his country mean to him too.