Sam Stosur has described as "very amicable" her Wimbledon-eve split with Miles Maclagan just seven months into a partnership that failed to deliver the desired results, claiming to be unfazed to be entering her least successful grand slam with an empty chair in the coaching box.
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The 17th seed said she was in no rush to appoint a successor to Maclagan, with whom she combined for a 19-15 record, having not even reached a semi-final since the Hobart International in in January. In recent weeks on grass, she lost to fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua in the second round in Birmingham, and to Caroline Wozniacki first-up at Eastbourne.
"Look, nothing major happened; there was no fight or anything like that,'' Stosur said of Maclagan, a Zambian-born Scot who formerly coached Andy Murray. "It was very amicable and I'm sure I'll see him this week anyway and it'll all be fine, but at the end of the day I felt like I needed to change things, and made that decision.
"It's no secret I don't think my results this year have been great. I'm not saying that that's his fault, but I did feel like I wanted to make a change. It wasn't because I lost to Wozniacki or I lost to Casey the week before, or any of that stuff. It was just as time went on that was kind of it, but there wasn't a big moment where everything kind of blew up in our face and that was it. It wasn't like that at all.''
The 30-year-old has given no thought to appointing a successor, having successfully flown solo to a handful of tournaments after splitting with long-time mentor David Taylor just before the US Open last August. In New York, however, she was stunned by US qualifier Victoria Duval in the first round.
"I haven't set a time frame, I haven't started looking, I haven't asked anyone, I haven't done anything about it, to be honest,'' said Stosur, who plays Belgian Yanina Wickmayer on Monday. "I mean, my goal at the moment is to go out there and try and play Wimbledon as best as I can and prepare for my first round… when the time's right I'll know it, and then I'll make a decision from there.
"At the end of last year, I played five or six tournaments without a coach and made a couple of finals and won an event. I know they're different events to Wimbledon, but I know how to play tennis, I know what I want to do on the court, it's a matter of doing it, and I don't think not having a coach for a tournament, or a period of time, is gonna make me such a worse player.''
