Stosur Has Faith In Coach Maclagan

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 18th December 2013

Stosur Has Faith In Coach Maclagan

epa03916806 Samantha Stosur of Australia in action against Simona Halep of Romania during their final match at the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament in Moscow, Russia, 20 October 2013. EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV |

Australian Samantha Stosur is pinning a lot of hopes on her new coach Miles Maclagan, who was once at the sides of Andy Murray, Marcos Baghdatis and Laura Robson. Maclagan and Robson split after the end of the season, and Stosur ended her long-term deal with David Taylor shortly after the US Open.

“Right from our first conversation he’s like:`You obviously know how to play tennis. You play very well. You’ve got all these great attributes,'” Stosur told AAP. “So it’s a matter of trying to keep bringing those out and work on the aspects that I’m not quite so confident on and get better and hopefully keep building my all-round game to be as good as it can be.”

Stosur ended 2013 at No. 18, after spending the three prior seasons in the top 10. The 29-year-old didn’t catch fire until the fall, after she and Taylor decided to go their separate ways and she was without a coach.

“It’s interesting. I’ve gone to my worst ranking in four or five years, but I’d never won two times before, I’d never beaten Azarenka before, I’d never beaten Kvitova before,” she of her fall 2013 wins. “There were lots of good things in there as well, which I’ve been able to take away and look at more objectively and realize that it wasn’t so bad at all.”

However, Stosur would not have split with Taylor if she had had an especially fruitful season. Her positives were winning two WTA titles at Carlsbad, where she beat Azarenka in final, Osaka, where she bested Genie Bouchard in final, and being the finalist at Moscow and Sofia, where she fell to Simona Halep both times.

But she failed to pass the quarters at a WTA Super Premier event, and only was able to reach the third round at Roland Garros, and Wimbledon, and the second round at her home Slam, the Australian Open.

“It’s the Grand Slams, it’s those big tournaments – Miami I couldn’t play, Beijing, Madrid I lost first round and some of the others I lost early as well,” she said.

“So it’s at those really big tournaments where it counts, where the big points are and where you can make gains.”

Stosur never considered going coach-less in 2014. She’s always been the type of person who likes to have a strong support team around her.

“I don’t know everything,” she said. “ I want guidance, I want that help from outside people and that’s why I’ve gone and hired someone again.”

Topics: 10sballs, Andy Murray, Laura Robson, Miles Maclagan, Petra Kvitova, Samantha Stosur, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, US Open, Victoria Azarenka