'It's in the back of your mind that things could be different'

That the latter is little more than an afterthought, as if it is just an adjunct to Gavin Rumgay's more valuable talents, is instructive. It illustrates the way in which the fortunes of the two Perthshire players have diverged since they comprised one of the UK's most feared junior doubles partnerships around the turn of the century. One earned £1.6m for winning Wimbledon alone, while the other has to supplement his prize money from table tennis by coaching racket sports, doing demonstrations and even commentating.

It would be understandable were Rumgay to feel sore at the way things have transpired, given that he never once lost to Murray and was considered the best player in Scotland between the ages of 12 and 15, but the Perth native refuses to harbour regrets, even if he does sometimes wonder what might have been. "It's always in the back of your mind that life could have been a bit different," the 29-year-old concedes. "Especially when you go to tournaments in Britain and the money isn't great and there's not much of a crowd. But unless you're at the top, tennis isn't that lucrative either. You see guys breaking into the top 200 but having only made £60,000 in their careers. So there's two sides to the coin."

Perhaps the greatest irony is that Rumgay opted for table tennis for financial reasons. Having taken up short tennis - played with a sponge ball on a badminton court - at the age of seven, he progressed to the full game before demonstrating that he was equally adept at manoeuvring a shuttlecock and a small plastic ball around a table. That the St Johnstone supporter was also a more than decent footballer and on the way to becoming a single-figure handicapper at golf burnished an already enviable skill set. However, when he reached 15, something had to give. The cost of advancing his tennis ambitions proved prohibitive but the offer of a sponsorship deal meant a more manageable option was table tennis.

It also opened up the prospect of competing in the Commonwealth Games and, within two years, Rumgay found himself part of a Scotland squad who were denied the chance to face England in the bronze-medal match in Manchester after falling to Australia in the last eight. He admits the experience passed him by somewhat, the peculiarities of a multi-sport event proving a little overwhelming, and now he is determined that the same thing will not happen to his callow colleagues in Glasgow next summer.

"Having been in Manchester and Delhi, there is extra responsibility on me as one of the senior guys," he admits. "We'll have team meetings in the build-up and I'll probably speak during those because it's important in these events that you know what to expect. It's quite exciting when you're in the food hall, for example, because you see the track athletes, shoulders back, strutting around, and for guys in the minority sports that can be a bit unsettling. In Delhi it was Chris Hoy who spoke to us all about that kind of thing and it's then that you realise it's not just about your sport and that you're all in this together."

Such accord is particularly pertinent for the table tennis squad. Although Rumgay will enter the individual competition, it is with Craig Howieson in the doubles, as well as in the team event, that Scotland harbour the greatest hopes. In theory, qualification is secure after earning the top-eight finish stipulated by sportscotland at the Commonwealth Championships in May. However, their efforts in New Delhi were so impressive - earning an unlikely bronze medal, with Rumgay the only player in the whole tournament to take a match off Singapore - that the targets have been recalibrated by the selectors and by the team.

"We weren't really worried about qualifying because we knew if we went to India and put in a good performance we'd be fine but what was staggering was winning a medal," says Rumgay. "That's when we realised we might have a bit more of a shout in Glasgow than we thought. It has made other teams look at us and think 'hmm, we don't fancy playing them in the quarter-finals'."

That attitude will inform the efforts of Rumgay and Howieson in the European Championships, which begin in Austria this weekend. The financial constraints that prevent Scotland being part of the European League have led to the decision not to enter the team event - they would only be eligible for the "far too easy" second-tier tournament - meaning that the doubles partners will both be in the preliminary stages of the individual draw along with around 250 others.

Given he is currently ranked 125th in the continent, Rumgay's aim is to emulate his previous best achievement of reaching the main draw of 64, and perhaps even barge his way into the last 32. Certainly, he travels in good form, having been unbeaten while representing Geneva-based Chenois in the Swiss League this season and qualified for the elite 64-man World Championships of Ping Pong, a lucrative Barry Hearn venture in which players use sandpaper bats and compete live on Sky Sports for a share of the $200,000 prize fund at London's Alexandra Palace.

"I always get a buzz playing in front of a bigger crowd and that's going to be an opportunity to do that and stand me in good stead for Glasgow," he says. "I've been to two Commonwealth Games before and if you're not ready by the age of 29 . . . it's more about making sure the other guys in the team are comfortable because they are going to have to win matches, too."

Despite his age, Rumgay's ambitions do not end next summer. It is one of the peculiarities of table tennis that many elite players are already in their 30s and it is with that in mind that he has set himself the target of improving his current world ranking of 232 sufficiently to earn himself a contract in the renowned German Bundesliga. "I'm not too far away because there are guys there at around 140 in the world," he explains. "That's where the big money is . . . not in coaching."