By Tom Fordyce BBC Sport Online

Patrice Hagelauer was appointed performance director of the Lawn Tennis Association in April 1999 after a hugely successful coaching career in France.

He guided Yannick Noah to the French Open title in 1983 and coached the French Davis Cup team for 16 years, twice landing the trophy.

Here he outlines the biggest obstacles facing British tennis as the hunt continues for the successors to Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski.

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Club culture

Tennis clubs in Britain might be a pleasant place for an adult to play a few sets on a Sunday afternoon - but they do little to help the country produce future champions.

Hagelauer syas it could take ten years to revitalise British tennis

"The culture is one of leisure and social tennis - which is great, if you also have junior tennis and competitive tennis," says Hagelauer.

"But at a lot of clubs, that is not there."

The number of clubs in Britain is also on the decline. The last decade has seen hundreds of clubs close as competition from gyms takes effect.

"Take France as an example," says Hagelauer. "They have 9,200 clubs compared to the 2,400 in Britain.

"Even in Switzerland they have 700 excellent clubs with good junior programmes."

Cash shortage

"In Britain most clubs are private clubs," says Hagelauer. "In other countries, they get support from local authorities and national government.

"Their courts are built and maintained by government, and the junior programmes are also sponsored by the government.

Hagelauer hopes Henman can inspire the nation

"We have to compete with these countries. If you go to France, Germany or Sweden, you will find excellent programmes funded by government, not by the national tennis federation.

"When you pay your taxes in France, you know your money goes towards schools and hospitals - but it will also be spent on sport.

"It makes a huge difference. On one hand you have the �30m profits from Wimbledon, half of which goes to support the clubs, but to get anywhere near what other countries spend, you are talking billions.

"That is the way sport is supported in this country. We are far behind."

More kids needed

"The lack of good junior programmes was a problem," says Hagelauer.

"We started developing ours about 16 months ago, but we're still struggling with numbers and we're behind other European countries.

"You need a lot of kids playing, but we are competing with a lot of countries who have well-organised junior programmes producing more and more players.

"Even small countries like Belgium and Switzerland have more than 500 clubs.

"Our target has to be to catch up as soon as possible, but these targets depend on how many clubs can deliver good junior programmes.

"At the moment we have very few top players because the base is so narrow."