Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the youngest player in the world's top 40 and a close friend of Andy Murray, remains a target for the Lawn Tennis Association despite muted statements to the contrary by the 19-year-old Belgrade-born player during the French Open. His mother, Dijana, spoke to the LTA in April during the Davis Cup tie between Serbia & Montenegro and Britain and the talks have continued ever since.

"The ball is in their court, that's the bottom line," said Roger Draper, the LTA's new chief executive, yesterday. "We cannot do anything until they make the decision." However, it is understood that the LTA has been actively pursuing the Djokovic family and trying to smooth the way for a move to Britain.

Djokovic had been due to play in the Stella Artois championship at Queen's last week but pulled out with a back injury sustained in Paris. It became clear during the French Open that he was being put under pressure by the Serbian tennis authorities who clearly do not want to lose their most prized player.

"It's big pressure, for sure, from my country, from the media and from the people," he said in Paris. "I just don't want to talk or think about it any more." Initially the teenager had indicated that his mooted move was no more than rumour and his coach denied there had been any approach. Clearly it would be seen as a major coup for Draper, who knows that the domestic cupboard is bare.

Ian Peacock, a former chief executive, admitted after he left the post that the best day's work he ever did at Barons Court was to get the Canadian-born Greg Rusedski on board 11 years ago and, although Draper's pursuit of Djokovic is considerably more complicated, no stone is being left unturned in order to bolster Britain's ailing place in the international tennis standings.

Draper has made substantial changes at the LTA, sacking the performance director David Felgate, the former coach of Tim Henman, as well as the tennis operations director Rebecca Miskin and the finance director Paul Keen, but he is keenly aware that the only way of immediately lifting Britain's profile is to follow the path of cricket and import overseas talent.

He joined the LTA as chief executive from Sport England at the beginning of April with a remit to make substantial changes to the structure and performance of British tennis. Currently Britain has only three male players - Rusedski, Murray and Tim Henman - in the top 100 and no women of international standing. The men's Davis Cup team are ranked a lowly 31st in the world, behind Luxembourg and just ahead of Chinese Taipei, and Britain has no players in the boys' junior top 100 and only two girls.

Djokovic, who is one week younger than Murray, reached his first grand slam quarter-final at Roland Garros and is currently ranked No40 in the world, five places ahead of the Scot. He also has two talented younger brothers, Marko and Djordje.

Rusedski had already been living in Britain for some years before switching nationalities in 1995, and his mother was born here. The Djokovic family have no such links and it would take him six years to become a British citizen. However, the International Tennis Federation requires a two-year residency rather than citizenship and he might be allowed to play for Britain in the Davis Cup after three years. It is possible this could be fast-tracked in Djokovic's case because Montenegro has recently voted for independence and it might be argued that the country he represented no longer exists.

Draper, who is due to announce further changes at the LTA after Wimbledon, repeated yesterday that this was still a period of consultation. He was renowned for wielding the axe at Sport England, and morale is said to be low within the LTA.

To have Murray and Djokovic, two of the most promising players in the world, playing under the Great Britain flag in the future would clearly be a tremendous boost at a time when British tennis, Murray excepted, has scraped the bottom of the barrel and found nothing but a hole.