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As she looks happily back on a stunning Australian summer, Casey Dellacqua is also looking excitedly ahead to a season of new possibilities. VIVIENNE CHRISTIE reports. <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s just like the endlessly good-natured Casey Dellacqua to give the most credit to her team.<\/p>\n Asked at the start of the 2014 season whether she was back to playing the best tennis of her life, Dellacqua delivered a trademark smile, agreed, then provided her summary of why: full health and fitness achieved with her long time fitness trainers and a relatively new coaching relationship that\u2019s quickly going from strength to strength.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously I\u2019ve had a couple of surgeries over the years. It\u2019s been tough to manage those injuries but obviously we all go through periods in our career,\u201d she said, alluding to the shoulder injury that required a full reconstruction early in 2009 and then a foot ailment that delayed her comeback for the best part of another year.<\/p>\n A commitment to returning to top form meant a move to Sydney, so Dellacqua could be close to Nathan and Giselle Martin, the fitness trainers who she believes are instrumental to her success. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been a quick process, it\u2019s been a gradual process over years of hard work,\u201d she pointed out. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky to have them in my team.\u201d<\/p>\n As she looks happily back on a stunning Australian summer and optimistically ahead to season of new possibilities, the influence of coach Shannon Nettle is also at the top of Dellacqua\u2019s gratitude list.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been awesome,\u201d she enthused of the former professional player, with whom she first teamed up in mid-2013. \u201cHe\u2019s probably the reason where I am now. I\u2019ve know I\u2019ve done a lot of hard work but he\u2019d guide me in the right direction and made me understand what I want to get from singles and how I want to play, and how I win matches.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t lost too many matches since we started. I certainly feel motivated and that my singles is going in the right direction. That\u2019s purely because of him.\u201d<\/p>\n Pointing to the easy communication style of Nettle \u2013 who is known by most as \u2018Stinga\u2019 \u2013 Dellacqua notes his fine-tuned understanding of the right scheduling, partly developed in the years he spent coaching fellow Australian player Peter Luczak in the latter stages of his career. \u201cJust the little things,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d certainly say he\u2019s one of the best coaches going around at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n But ask either trainers or coach, and they\u2019re equally quick to point out the work ethic and positive spirit that has helped Dellacqua recover from those career-threatening health problems.<\/p>\n Certainly they were all on show in Australia, where Dellacqua\u2019s season started earlier than most with victory in the pre-Christmas Australian Open play-off at Melbourne Park, earning her the wildcard that would help her shape the season. It was followed by victories over high-ranked opponents in both Brisbane and Hobart \u2013 and then another stunning run at the Australian Open, Dellacqua eventually equalling the fourth round appearance she\u2019d also achieved in 2008.<\/p>\n Wins over former world No.2 Vera Zvonareva, 18th\u00a0seed Kirsten Flipkens and world No.56 Jie Zheng made her the most successful local singles competitor in Melbourne, the stirring run ending with a three-set loss to the surging Eugenie Bouchard.<\/p>\n It was a performance that reminded Dellacqua of what she most loved about tennis, especially considering that it occurred in front of her favourite home crowds. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have people behind you. I don\u2019t feel any more pressure or anything playing in front of the crowd. You can just tell they want you to do well, so I just want to play my best and up a good match,\u201d she said. \u201cThe crowd really helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n Having jumped from outside the top 100 to No.80 after the Australian Open, Dellacqua is also tremendously encouraged by the launching pad she\u2019s created for the remainder of the season, following some recent \u2013 and tough \u2013 periods of contemplation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be honest. About three months ago, after the US Open, I remember having a conversation with my coach in Tokyo,\u201d she said. \u201cI qualified there. But I was 180. It was just a matter of like \u2018Do I want to continue to really work hard and play singles?\u2019. We had all those conversations. And my answers were always \u2018Yeah, I want to do it, yeah I want to work hard\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cNow only three months later, (I\u2019m) back inside 100.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As she looks happily back on a stunning Australian summer, Casey Dellacqua is also looking excitedly ahead to a season of new possibilities. VIVIENNE CHRISTIE reports. It\u2019s just like the endlessly good-natured Casey Dellacqua to give the most credit to her team. Asked at the start of the 2014 season whether she was back to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}