Gordon has found a way to ensure the school playground is not simply a place to make a racket

"The time to take up tennis is now," says Julie Gordon, an experienced coach and one who complements her call to action by setting up opportunities for children to play the sport.

"I think about the Murray window in terms of the legacy; that is 'what do we need to do now to make sure that the momentum created by his success lasts well beyond his own tennis playing lifetime?' We need to think about creating the role models for the future by capturing the current enthusiasm shown by children and adults and giving them every opportunity to play the game," she says.

Gordon, who coaches at Western Tennis Club in Hyndland, adds: "We want to give as many people the chance to play tennis. We want to make sure it's affordable and accessible. We want it to permeate the culture in the same way that football does. With increased demand for tennis over the next few years we will be able to realise our dream of building an indoor centre and thereby enabling us to offer a world-class environment for our young athletes of Glasgow."

Her strategy has a defined aim but she has no restrictions on how she will pursue the goal. She is determined to bring the sport to people who might never have considered it.

First, she has taken tennis to primary schools in north-west Glasgow and the next project is to link football with tennis by enlisting Ian McCall, the former Rangers player and Dundee United and Partick Thistle manager, to help at coaching sessions that will feature both ball games.

The primary schools project was an extraordinary success. "The children now play tennis during the breaks on chalked-up courts in the playgrounds," says Gordon. "They use their hands to hit the ball if there are no rackets."

The project was run by Western Tennis Club partnered with Tennis Scotland and the Active Schools co-ordinators for Cleveden, John Paul and Hyndland secondary schools, to run coaching sessions for primary 4 pupils that ended in a coaching competition.

In February and March, eight schools received four weeks of coaching at Western, Belcraig Community Centre or Firhill Stadium. "We wanted to make sure that the children had an experience of 'real tennis'," says Gordon. "Traditionally, we have delivered taster sessions in the gym at local schools. This is limiting as most primary school gyms are no bigger than a badminton court so we went to the bigger centres."

The legacy of the project was ensured with every school sending a teacher to a training course on how to keep tennis alive in schools. Each participating school received free equipment worth £500 as well as DVDs outlining tennis activities.

Almost 300 pupils from the schools – Caldercuilt, St Blane's, Highpark, Dunard, St Charles, Hyndland, St Peter's and St Mary's – were introduced to tennis for the first time. The winners were Caldercuilt, who will go forward to a regional final in September.

Fiona Rattray, head teacher of Caldercuilt, believes that the pupils can follow Murray's example in never being truly beaten, never giving up but returning to the challenge. "We are so glad to have had this opportunity," she says.

Two of the school's teachers, Debbie Nicol and Nicola Docherty, went on the course sponsored by Aegon and now take the pupils in tennis every Friday. "The equipment is first class," says Nicol. "We have to thank AEGon and we have been so pleased with the enthusiasm of the children. Some of them show real potential but it has been a great way to bring all the school together in the playground."

Steven Gilliland, of Active Schools Glasgow, said: "This project has been a huge success. There is a great buzz about tennis in the schools at the moment with teachers running after-school clubs and nets being set up in the playground for the children to access during their breaks. We would love to make this an annual event and we're looking forward to next year already."

The next step is that Gordon and McCall will be offering two weeks of free football/tennis coaching at Western next month. "We're doing it in conjunction with the active schools network," says Gordon. "We hope by offering two activities – and particularly football – that we will attract more children to tennis and show them they can play other sports."

McCall, a keen tennis player, has been a more than willing recruit. "Football is still the national sport though it has it problems at the moment," says the 48-year-old, who spent two years at Rangers during his playing career. "But this is a chance to open up tennis to kids who might have fancied it but do not know how to get into the sport. The sessions will be run in 45-minute segments, alternating between football and tennis."

The former footballer enlisted in the project when he met Gordon, who coaches his nine-year-old son, Edson, at Western.

In addition, Gordon and other coaches from Western will be offering free coaching at Maryhill sports centre today from 4pm to 5pm. The centre will hire out its badminton courts during Wimbledon as tennis courts and if this is popular, it will offer it all year round. Adults and children can just turn up at the sports centre or pre-register at minitennis@glasgowwestern.co.uk

A nation's eyes will be on Murray for the next fortnight but the focus for committed tennis coaches is to ensure his legacy is not restricted to DVDs of his victories.