Maybe, just maybe, Jarmila Gajdosova might have turned a corner.
It has been some time coming.
Australia’s No.2 women’s tennis player has endured a horrendous 12 months that has included divorce, illness, injury, vicious online abuse and on-court humiliation.
After being on the verge of cracking the top 20, her ranking has blown out to 50.
But she showed in her 6-4 6-4 Fed Cup win over German world No.16 Julia Goerges that gave the visitors a 2-0 lead in front of a parochial crowd in Stuttgart on Saturday that a formidable talent still lurks within.
Instead of the emotional outbursts that have regularly derailed her, she kept her focus to defeat Goerges who won the WTA tournament at the very same venue a year ago.
Such had Gajdosova’s form been that Fed Cup captain David Taylor said before the tie that he could not rely on her to win one of her two singles rubbers.
He had good reason.
Before Saturday’s win on clay, Gajdosova had a 6-9 record for the year and just two wins over top 100 players – even if one of those was against world No.24 Yanina Wickmayer at Indian Wells.
Taylor was delighted to be proved wrong.
“It was like watching (Maria) Sharapova out there,” Taylor said.
“Jarka was nearly in the top 20 at one stage last year and she played like a top-five player out there.
“That win should really give her confidence a lift.”
Gajdosova said she had taken heart from winning a set against Kim Clijsters in Miami last month and felt her form had been coming.
“I was 25 in the world for a while for a reason,” she said.
“I was able to beat some of those top girls but I had some personal issues, sickness and injuries.
“But I have been working hard on my game and hopefully I can start to have a few more wins like this.”
Gajdosova said the win over Goerges was not the best of her career.
She rated it below her win over then world No.4 Francesca Schiavone in the Fed Cup tie against Italy in Hobart 14 months ago.
But more importantly, Gajdosova was smiling again.
After all that has been thrown at her over the past year, that is something.