Australian Samantha Stosur says her recommitment to the mental side of her game is paying off ahead of her French Open second round clash.
The 35-year-old has never missed the third round in her last 10 visits to Roland Garros and boasts a final and three other semi-final appearances at the grand slam.
Her fondness for the Paris clay showed in an impressive first-up defeat of battle-hardened Barbora Strycova on Monday, with little-known Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova her next assignment.
Stosur has no plans to announce retirement any time soon but needs wins to ensure she doesn’t slip outside the world’s top 100 and miss automatic entry to grand slams.
It is pressure like that the former world No.4 has done her best to swipe away, although she admits the mental battles have always been tough to fend off.
“Just mentality and attitude and going on court (thinking) ‘what am I trying to do?’,” she said of her recent focus.
“A lot of the things you work on while you’re on court are your forehands, backhands and all that.
“But there’s a lot of things behind the scenes that are just as important and have been a big focus lately.”
“To prove to myself I can do those things that I sometimes struggle with, I did (in the first round) and that obviously gives you hope.”
Stosur, eighth seed Ashleigh Barty and wildcard Priscilla Hon will all feature in women’s second round matches on day five, as will Australian world No.69 Jordan Thompson against 40-year-old ace machine Ivo Karlovic.
Of those four only Stosur has progressed beyond the second round in Paris.
Alexei Popyrin was an early second-round casualty on day four, going down in three tight sets – 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 – to impressive Serbian 31st seed Laslo Djere.
AUSSIES IN ACTION ON DAY FIVE – (PREFIX DENOTES SEEDING)
* Samanthan Stosur v Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS)
* 8-Ashleigh Barty v Danielle Collins (USA)
* Priscilla Hon v 14-Madison Keys (USA)
* Jordan Thompson v Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
HOW THE AUSSIES FARED ON DAY FOUR
* 31-Laslo Djere (SRB) d Alexei Popyrin 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-4
* 21-Alex de Minaur v P Carreno Busta (ESP) still to play