MICHAEL Downey, the Canadian chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, believes Leon Smith is "the world's best Davis Cup captain" and says he is determined the Scot should stay on in the role. While it appears likely for now that the Glaswegian will remain in post leading into the 2016 first round tie against Japan in Birmingham in March, how best to use his enviable skill set for the betterment of British tennis remains a source of some uncertainty. A new interim head of performance in Peter Keen, formerly of British Cycling, is currently conducting a review into the sport, while there are hopes north of the border that he could be persuaded to spend more time on secondment to Scotland to head up tennis operations there. Kyle Edmund, with whom Smith has been travelling recently, also currently has a coaching vacancy to be filled.

"Credit to Roger Draper because he made the bold decision five or six years ago to give the nod to Leon Smith as captain, and he knew what he was doing," said Downey. "Obviously he had a relationship with Andy Murray but Leon is a lot deeper than that because you need a team around it, and I think he's shown that type of teamwork and leadership that he can deliver. He's a very special young man and I really believe Leon is probably the world's best Davis Cup captain and he has been for a while. I think there's going to be a lot of nations probably reaching out to say what was special about Leon Smith because we sure need that in our country. I sure hope so [he'll be staying]."

Downey insists that he has no guarantees about the World No 2's participation in this competition other than a statement of intent that he will feature against Japan in March. The quarter final dates, immediately after Wimbledon and shortly before the Olympics, seem highly problematic. By then, of course, depending on the outcome of an ITF hearing Aljaz Bedene may also be eligible to represent Great Britain. "I know Leon has talked about Andy's interest in playing the Japanese tie in March. I think we just start with that."

Building on the team's successes to deliver greater participation in the sport is his next goal, but there are no specific plans to sit down with the World No 2 to chart the way forward. "These are very special, emotional moments that can actually drive interest in our sport, there’s no doubt about it," said the chief executive. "We’ve probably got a couple of great weeks of coverage coming and that is going to encourage participation. We are hoping this team wins team of the year [at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards] then we will head towards that March period. Our team gets to come back to a home tie in Birmingham and that’s going to be the time when we really want to see the activation hit a high level, because it’s coming into that important participation season of spring and summer."