The return to Scotland of the Murray brothers and their Great Britain captain Leon Smith with the Davis Cup has been evidence of the Glaswegian’s growing influence in the sport’s musty corridors of power.

Both Andy, the world’s number two ranked singles player and Jamie Murray, the best doubles player in the sport have, have repeatedly been fiercely critical of both the Lawn Tennis Association and Tennis Scotland for the failure to build on their successes by properly promoting the sport.

Mum Judy, who recruited Smith to work with Andy when he was an 11-year-old, has also been outspoken about the out-datedness of the tennis establishment, however the Davis Cup Trophy Tour is part of a new plan that has been driven by the men who have brought British tennis its greatest successes in more than 70 years with their Wimbledon, Olympic, US Open, Australian Open and Davis Cup victories.

“Since December the LTA and the players, with myself representing the players looked to set out a new strategy. I had a seat at the table of the planning of what the strategy was going to be and it was great,” Smith explained.

Smith was back in Glasgow this week at the Clarkston and Giffnock clubs where he learned the game, while Jamie Murray visited his home town of Dunblane last week and his younger brother is set to follow, but that is just part of a twin-pronged effort to raise the sport’s profile and increase involvement.

“We had two strands of what we wanted to create as a legacy,” said Smith.

“First there’s the trophy tout - Andy will do his in September - where we take our beautiful trophy around, the kids absolutely love seeing it, especially when you link one of the players or to a lesser extent myself, when you can showcase it, talk about it, bring some context to it.

“So that’s one strand of it and the second one which is more relevant for myself as a coach is the ‘Tennis for Kids’ programme.”

The same qualities Judy Murray saw in the young Leon Smith, along with his capacity to influence the British number one, were widely seen as the key factors in the decision to appoint him as Davis Cup captain at a time when Greg Rusedski, with his far superior playing record, was also a candidate.

Having fully vindicated that by creating an environment which has enthused squad members and generated an impressive team spirit in spite of often having to ask players like Kyle Edmond, Dan Evans or Dom Inglot to focus on supporting roles, as well as helping find ways around scheduling problems to maximise the commitment of Andy Murray in spite of the huge demands the competition makes upon him, Smith’s emphasis is on the attitude of those introducing youngsters to the sport.

He has reinforced that message with a separate tour of his own, during which he has been seeking to instil a wider understanding that the most fundamental attribute for coaches is their capacity to instil enjoyment through their own enthusiasm, rather than getting overly technical too quickly, while regenerating the sort of club atmosphere that he remembers growing up in.

“Andy and Jamie are the same about Dunblane,” Smith noted.

“We hear a lot about how they played in the gents teams at a very young age against the slice and dice, different techniques that helped them develop different skills.

“I spent a full four weeks out of the schedule to actually get on court with 1000 coaches around the country and show them exercises, but also show them and share with them how to be, how to inspire, how to motivate, because we want the kids to go along and say I want to back and back and back because the tennis coaching is so much fun.

“You can learn with experience the type of practise they do, the skill developments, but the first thing is making sure that personality’s there. So you’ve got two strands and it’s a long way of answering it, but is the momentum there? Absolutely... If you look at the coverage that’s been created from the Tennis for Kids programme it’s been brilliant and the trophy tour will keep going.”