Thursday at Queen's Club, and David Brewer, the ninth best junior tennis player in the world, is hitting up on a court near David Felgate's office.

From the corner of his eye, the 18-year-old from Paisley sees the Lawn Tennis Association's performance director pass him like a dervish on his way to an adjacent court.

The sight of Felgate running around looking after and encouraging his young charges is nothing out of the ordinary. The man who was Tim Henman's former coach has just taken over the difficult – some would say impossible task – of unearthing the next British tennis player capable of winning Wimbledon. And the question is, ridiculous as it may appear in print: could such a player come from Scotland? Well it's a start that Felgate doesn't laugh when such an idea is put to him. Looking at the facts regarding the quality of young Scottish talent coming through suggests scorn should not be poured on such an idea out of hand.

Certainly it's worth taking bets now that a United Kingdom Davis Cup team made up exclusively of Scots could one day soon become a reality once Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski call it a day. Right now, the three best junior boys in the UK come from north of the border and, if they keep going at this rate Scotland could at last have a male player to match the public profile of Elena Baltacha, who honed her tennis in Glasgow, and made headlines at Wimbledon last year.

It is not that David Brewer, from Paisley, Dunblane's Andy Murray and Jamie Baker from Jordanhill are anywhere near world-beaters just now. But, no-one is coming up in the slipstream left by Henman and Rusedski, both of whom are past their best.

It's hard to explain the rise of the young Scots, which has come from nowhere but has taken place against a background of good work by the Scottish LTA, despite set-backs along the way. For instance, a few years ago the LTA indicated they would contribute £1.5m towards the £4m cost of a new national centre for Scotland at Heriot-Watt University which was to house four clay courts. They changed their minds with the result that the plans had to be down-sized and moved to Stirling University, where two clay courts have been built at a cost of £2m. The LTA input was a more modest £400,000.

Brewer is the classic example of a youngster who would have stayed north of the border for longer, had Scotland had more and better facilities. He makes it very clear. "In Scotland the players used to come up in isolation but, in recent years we've banded together and encourage each other wherever we play across the world," said the youth who started at Paisley Lawn Tennis Club.

He surprised himself by winning the British under-12 national championships at Bisham Abbey and, from there, it was onwards and upwards with success in following at under-13 and under-15 level. In March this year he pushed himself into the international spotlight with a victory in the prestigious Banana Bowl tournament in Brazil.

Earlier in his career, after attending schools in Paisley and Glasgow, Brewer had to move to Leys School in Cambridge in pursuit of a reputable tennis programme. "If Scotland had such a place, I would have stayed up there at the time," said Brewer. "In saying that, going to England was just the start of my travels. Now I travel all over the place just to play tennis."

Brewer isn't kidding. Brazil, Argentina, Italy, America and Tunisia are just some of the diverse destinations he has visited over the past two years looking for a few ranking points and a few dollars more.

Perversely, he believes the bad weather in Scotland has turned out to be a benefit rather than a hindrance as he travels the world. "I think when people like Andy and Jamie [Murray] and I go out to train, we aren't bothered by the weather, when some of them from down in England want to go back indoors straight away," he laughs. "We train in the wind, the rain, the snow even, and it doesn't bother us. We've got that resilience to keep going."

Felgate recognises the potential players like Brewer, Baker and Murray possess and makes it clear he will do all he can to help them. "What we want to do is help make such players better, but there is no reason why one or more of our top British men's tennis players shouldn't come from Scotland," said Felgate. "As for the Davis Cup team, it wouldn't bother me if we had a good team and they all happened to be from Scotland. It's important for these players to maximise their potential and all three of them are making real progress just now."