And that's where you have to improve in the following tournaments. You don't get many chances against top players."Henman, 27, and Rusedski, 28, are not exactly youngsters. "From my own experience, the age thing is not such a handicap, provided you are motivated," Taylor says. "Things change in your life: you get married, have families, or whatever. Tim and Greg are married, but they don't have families at the moment. They are both very committed to playing tennis, so physically they can remain in good shape, playing hard matches and playing week in and week out for the next five years.

It depends how long they want to play."It seems unlikely that they will be pressed into early retirement by British rivals, although Taylor is determined to get the best he can out of the rest of the squad. "Martin Lee is 103 in the world and has very clearly established himself as our No 3 player," he says, emphasising that the left-hander from Worthing, who marks his 24th birthday next Sunday, did himself proud in last month's all but forgotten European Team Championship."The previous year, we dropped out of the Premiership into Division One, so I felt I needed a fairly strong team to go," Taylor says. "I discussed it with Martin, and he came along, and Lee Childs played No 2, and I took Alex Bogdanovic It was good We did go up from Division One to the Premier Division. It was disappointing in a way that there wasn't any publicity for it."I think that's one of the problems We forget about our other players sometimes. So much of it is Tim and Greg, and we rely on them tremendously.

But there was a good occasion, when Tim and Greg were way past playing in the European Team Championship – and I wouldn't ask them to play in it – but I certainly felt I needed Martin Lee We beat Ukraine, Turkey and Croatia to go back up. It was very good for me to see Martin in those kind of matches. In Britain, we have downgraded those events because we don't think they are so important But we never win them."Lee Childs did a good job as well. Alex Bogdanovic played his first senior doubles match ever, against Turkey The team had won, so he got a 'dead' rubber That's how you start.

If you are 17 years old, you think this is the biggest match of your life, even though it's a 'dead' rubber. Alex played well, he won his doubles with Lee Childs, and that's how the process works: trying to bring everybody in to get some experience, because eventually they may have to be thrown into a 'live' match."Bogdanovic is gifted. "He's keen and determined and willing to work hard," Taylor says. "We want him to believe he's a good player, which he is, but in international junior tennis, he is one of many good players, and we must keep that in perspective: give him all the credit he deserves, but be realistic, there's a long way to go."Childs, like Martin Lee, had success as a junior and has a big game. "If you look back two years ago, Lee Childs won the Nationals, and so we were saying then, this is the man, right here, who is going to be the next player," Taylor says.