AS exceptional as Andy and Jamie Murray undoubtedly are, they aren’t unique when it comes to the category of Scottish brothers who have devoted their entire existence to tennis. By the age of 18, back when both Murray siblings were setting out on their chosen sport, Toby and Leon Smith (not to mention their younger brother Gary, also an LTA-registered coach) were already embarking on parallel lives in tennis coaching.

Remarkably, tennis first took hold of the Smith family by accident. While the Murrays were hot-housed in the sport through their mother Judy, a former player, the Smiths had no interest in the game until the random intervention of a neighbour who suggested it was worth a try. Little did the kids suspect then that enrolment at Clarkston Tennis Club would be the first step in an involvement with the sport which has lasted for decades and is intensifying with each passing year.

While Davis Cup captain and LTA head of men’s tennis Leon attempts to lead Team GB into the final of the event for the first time since 1978 – the semi-final against Australia at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena takes place from September 18 to 20 – Toby was down in Nottingham yesterday to witness 14-year-old Jacob Fearnley coming from 4-1 down in the final set to take care of Jack Draper, the highly-rated son of former LTA chief executive Roger Draper, in the semi-finals of the Nike Junior National Tournament in Nottingham. Ewen Lumsden, Aidan McHugh and Alexandra Hunter are other young native talents under his tutelage.

Toby, who briefly worked with the young Andy Murray but claims no credit whatsoever in his development, has been a staple of Tennis Scotland’s programmes for their elite young players for the last decade or so. Last year he spent around half of the year travelling to tournaments with the best young Scottish players, and with Walker now concentrating more on a younger age group from eight to 11, from September he will continue to front up the top tier of ‘national level’ coaching for young players and travel to tournaments. Beneath that level, invitations have gone out for the best prospects in each region to get regular twice-weekly coaching sessions at hubs in Glasgow, Stirling, and Edinburgh.

There was speculation, of course, that Leon would also be spending more time north of the border on a formalised basis by now. Herald Sport reported during Wimbledon of the talks between Leon, the LTA and Tennis Scotland with a view to the 39-year-old middle Smith brother devoting more of his time to a lead role in Scottish tennis, whilst maintaining his role as Davis Cup captain.

That process has stalled for now as the LTA react to the sudden decision of veteran Australian Bob Brett to quit his player development role and finalise the appointment of a new performance director. Leon has the Davis Cup to concentrate on as well, but from his point of view Toby feels the new system Tennis Scotland has envisaged from September is positive and getting more formalised input and leadership from his brother, who spent much of last year shuttling between the high performance centres in Nottingham and Stirling on an ad hoc basis, at some point down the line would be the cherry on top. Just for good measure, the sense of flux at Tennis Scotland continues apace, with the organisation advertising for a new chairperson to replace Gordon Baker, father of former British No 2 Jamie, and a new commercial and marketing manager to replace Dave McDermid, who will stay on in a PR role.

“The last four or five years the two of us have become very close,” Toby told Herald Sport. “We are doing similar things, just at different stages, so we are very sympathetic to each other about what we are going through.

“He has given me a lot of support, whether officially or unofficially,” Smith added. “There was quite a lot of time last year when he was able to come up in an LTA capacity and support the players we have who are playing at the top end in GB and playing internationally. There is a lot of passion there, a lot of care for Scottish tennis, so I am sure he would love to get involved in some capacity but at the moment with the LTA going through some changes there is a lot of work to get done before we can get excited about an additional position. Certainly from my side I think we would work together well and it would be quite an exciting time.

“I think the changes that have been put in place are going to improve things. There is going to be a wider net to try to get more kids accessing tennis a bit more regularly. If we can do that, it should increase the odds of finding new players. There is a much clearer pathway and it should work well. If we could get a bit more input maybe from Leon just to direct it a little bit more and pull things together then that would be a real positive for us.”

If the rest of the tennis world were somewhat nonplussed by his brother’s appointment as Davis Cup captain, Toby is unsurprised by the efficiency of the job he has done, dragging Team GB up from the brink of relegation to the depths of Euro/Africa Zone III. “Knowing Leon, it is kind of what I would have expected,” he said.