Tennis: Baily saddled with great expectations: Guy Hodgson on a junior champion who is learning he must keep his feet on the ground to scale the heights of tennis

THE tone has been one of caution. 'He has a chance.' It was a message being repeated like an order for battle. 'It's a big step from junior to senior tennis.' 'He could, he just might, reach the world's top 50.' While others around them were threatening to lose their heads, those in the know were keeping resolutely realistic.

James Baily was 18 last Monday but the six-footer from Curbridge, in Hampshire, had come of age the previous day. By winning in Australia to become the first Briton to take a junior Grand Slam title for 28 years he was exposed to the craving this country has for anyone born within these shores with a half-decent chance of being successful with a tennis racket. The anticipation, the weight of knowing the nation's eyes are on him, had begun.

A television interview on BBC's Sportsnight was accommodated, a request by one magazine to include Baily among a list of the nation's most eligible bachelors was not. Britain learned of Baily gaining the junior title in Melbourne and saw that the names on the trophy included Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe and Stefan Edberg. It chose to ignore the Britons who had won junior Grand Slams before and disappeared.

Stanley Matthews Jnr was the last British male junior winner at Wimbledon in 1962, but he was destined to remain in the greater consciousness as the great footballer's son. Gerald Battrick won in Paris three years later, but again his victory was a prelude to becoming another Great British champion who never quite made it. Wimbledon, the jewel of the tennis world, hangs like a ton weight around the neck of any promising young player with the misfortune to come from these shores.

'Other players cannot believe the pressure that is put on British tennis players,' Jo Durie said at Wimbledon last year, and Baily was sampling it for the first time. He had taken the junior Australian title but, to put it into perspective, Boris Becker had won Wimbledon proper and Michael Chang had collected the French Open at an earlier age.

So was Baily's victory the beginning of a better age for British tennis or another false dawn? A man with more reason to know than most is David Lloyd, a player good enough to compete in the Davis Cup final, but whose lasting renown may lie with youngsters he is ushering along the way.

Lloyd has built seven tennis centres which ring London and have 39,000 members. They, he hopes, will help provide a larger playing base from which British champions may emerge.

They are for the 21st century; for the medium term he has coached and helped provide facilities for several young talents, including Baily and the possibly greater gifted Jamie Delgado, who reached the semi-finals in Melbourne last week at an age, 15, that will give him three further chances to emulate his stablemate. Baily first came under the influence of Lloyd's team when he was 12, Delgado has worked with him since he was nine.

'One thing that Baily has, which he's always had, and that's an enormous forehand,' Lloyd said. 'He really does belt the hell out of the ball. He has a weapon and he's big. That's why I think he'll make it.'

Lloyd rattles off his sentences like volleying practice. He comes over as hugely enthusiastic. He wants, he says, to see a British world champion. Not necessarily a Wimbledon winner, but a No 1.

He, too, though, was keeping his sights low concerning Baily. 'Suddenly he's in every paper,' he said. 'It's quite frightening how the British press and the British public want a champion so badly.

'You have to be very careful that you keep a young kid's feet on the ground. He has to forget what's happened and get on with next week. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is if you win senior tournaments, not junior ones. It's the 'Australian trophy' on his mantlepiece, he can forget it, never look at it again. It's a low starting point.'

Baily's personal low point came last summer, when he threatened to leave the game altogether. Every young tennis player has crises - the 14-year-old Jim Courier used to weep when his parents dropped him off at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Florida - and Baily's came after he left Lloyd and joined the Lawn Tennis Association coaching scheme at Bisham Abbey. Some youngsters have thrived at Bisham; Baily did not.

'The scheme was not suited to him,' Lloyd said. 'It's not a criticism, it just didn't suit him. That happens. He went through a bad period, he started to hate the game and if you hate what you are doing you have to give up.

'The great champions, if you talk to them, their adrenalin, their food, their nourishment derives from hitting tennis balls. Winning is what they live for. Nothing else will get in the way. Jimmy Connors had this amazing desire to be the best. He's still got it. What's he playing for? The chap's a multi, multi-millionaire, been one of the greatest champions of all time and he's still playing. Why? It's a drug.'

Baily looked for help from Stephen Shaw, with whom he had worked at Bisham for a month before the former Davis Cup player had joined Lloyd at Raynes Park to coach Delgado. Under Shaw, and with the help of the psychologist Elma Thomas, he rediscovered the drug and in Melbourne began to harness the power he has always had but not always been able to control.

In the final Baily defeated New Zealand's Steve Downs, who had beaten Delgado in the semi-finals. Lloyd describes Delgado as having the 'finest racket hands I have ever seen' and has backed his judgement to the tune of pounds 100,000 this year, paying for his travelling costs and coaching. Delgado's progress has been monitored since he won the world under-14 title, the Orange Bowl, 14 months ago, and it is probably a relief that Baily will now divert some of the attention.

'Baily, Delgado, and some of the others like Miles Maclagan and Andrew Richardson could reach the world's top 50,' Lloyd said. 'Which is what we need. Britain is not like America, where there are thousands of good youngsters competing against each other. We need three or four in a piggy-back situation. 'I must beat him. I must beat the other.' Gradually they push each other into the top 20. I think it will happen. We have reason to be quietly optimistic.'

Meanwhile, Baily was coming to terms with the attention. Would he be able to cope with the publicity? 'I hope so,' he replied, 'I don't think what anybody else says about you can change how you play on court.' Monica Seles, for one, could put him right on that; but as everyone has been stressing over the last week, Baily has a lot to learn. He has a chance.

(Photograph omitted)