Gilbert has spent the past few days hitting with Henman and Alex Bogdanovic, the British No 3, as well as Murray. Its inspiring to see what Tim continues to bring to his sport at 32, Gilbert said. In my playing days, I remember Jeremy Bates and maybe Andy Foster reaching the second week of Wimbledon and then Tim came along. You have this tournament, a guy [Henman] comes close instead of failing and its like, you torture yourselves more. I dont get that.

For Alex, he cannot worry about whatever chain of command he had in the past. Good people want to help and if he learns to love the gym, great things can happen. If getting into the top ten was just about striking the ball nicely, it would be a very crowded top ten.

Gilbert recalls a line from Field of Dreams, in which an Iowa corn farmer, played by Kevin Costner, is persuaded in a dream to build a baseball diamond on his land and told the Chicago Black Sox will visit: If you build it, they will come. And so, one dreams, it will be with the National Tennis Centre and British tennis.