Now through to the fourth round, resurgent Serbian Ana Ivanovic has credited coach Nigel Sears for her strong showing so far at the Australian Open.
Sears, who most recently spent four years as Head of Women's Tennis at the Lawn Tennis Association in England, is the former coach of Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova and South African Amanda Coetzer.
A former player himself, it is his former association with Hantuchova for which he is best known, having helped guide her to a career-high fifth in the world rankings in 2003 during the first of two, two-year stints as her mentor.
Ivanovic began working with Sears in July last year, after quickly agreeing terms at Wimbledon, and the results have been noticeable since as she has made the last 16 at both the US Open and now Melbourne Park and also defended her title in Bali in between.
Since making the Australian Open final in 2008 and then breaking through for her first Grand Slam crown at the French Open several months later, Ivanovic only reached the fourth round three times at the next 13 majors she contested.
But a solid spell of training with Sears since she won in Bali has her in a much more confident mood, leading her to laud the Briton following her straight-sets, third-round win over American Vania King on Saturday.
"It's been really good (working with Nigel)," Ivanovic said.
"I've been very fortunate that we had the opportunity to work with each other."
"I was really excited after Wimbledon when we sort of started working together."
"I felt like through the summer in America I was improving each week (and) I had a great week in Bali last year."
"But, you know, we actually did not have time for preparation in time to work on the game."
"This off-season was the first time we could actually take some time and work on things specifically (and) I really feel it's paying off."
Ivanovic revealed that she and Sears had set some goals for 2012 and that so far she has achieved the first of them by getting through to the last 16 but she knows it won't be easy against Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.
"Oh, it would be great (to reach the quarter-finals)," said Ivanovic, who has won the only three meetings between the pair although the most recent was back in 2009.
"That's definitely my goal, you know, I always want to take it one match at a time."
"It's going to be a very tough one, Petra is definitely playing some great tennis."
"She's one of the hottest players at the moment (and) it's going to be a great challenge for me but I'm really happy to go out there and throw my best at her."
Having called for a trainer during the second set, Ivanovic revealed after the win that she had battled illness earlier this week and struggled in the latter stages of the match as well.
"Yeah, I caught a bug a couple days ago, after my second-round match," she said.
"I wasn't feeling really good yesterday (Friday) so I had to take it really easy."
"Today I felt fine, (I) just started to get a little nauseous again in that second set."
"Then I just took some tablets and it really helped to calm things down a bit."