2014 has not been an easy year for Australian world No.19 Samantha Stosur. The expectation of success after a dominant 2013 fall season has not quite materialized. And, in her attempt to rediscover herself under the guidance of a new coach, she has struggled to register any meaningful result on the tour in 2014. But as new, younger faces emerge among the veterans in the world’s top 20, the arrival of the clay season has shown that there may just be a light at the end of the tunnel for the Aussie battler.

After a purple patch at the end of 2013 with three consecutive finals appearances and another title, Stosur would have been excited at the prospect of hitting the ground running in Australia. With the appointment of a new coach in the offseason, Stosur was shouldering high expectations heading into the 2014 Australian summer. Unfortunately for the 30-year-old, things didn’t quite go to plan on court as she ran head-first into a red-hot Ana Ivanovic in Melbourne. Although she lost that third-round match, Stosur showed glimpses of her 2010-11 form and also oozed confidence in winning both her rubbers in Australia’s successful Fed Cup World Group tie in Hobart against Russia. While she’s never performed particularly well on home soil, Stosur had one of her better campaigns there and headed overseas after the Australian Open with the mindset that she could once again reach the heights she did in that golden period.

However, that’s where things went slightly awry for the Australian. During a scant American hard-court swing in which her best performance was a third-round appearance in Miami, Stosur seemed to lose herself on court. Getting lost in a middle range between being aggressive and playing smart tennis, Stosur seemed to lose shape in her shots while making erratic and poor choices. This was reflected in losses to American journeywoman Coco Vandeweghe in Miami and last week’s woeful defeat to qualifier Timea Bacsinszky in Oeiras, Portugal. While that’s not to take anything away from her opponents, there is a reason Stosur has not dipped outside the top 20 since 2008. That was because of her unwavering ability to win matches. In the past three months, since her wins over the Russians in Hobart, Stosur has not looked a shade of the player that romped to the US Open title in 2011.

Much can be said for her change of support group over the offseason. Many players, particularly on the WTA Tour, can struggle to form a successful relationship with newcomers. For example, Caroline Wozniacki has gone through an array of coaching changes in recent years. One feels that Stosur appointed Miles Maclagan, a former mentor of Andy Murray, to reinforce her mental resilience. In the past three months, however, it seems as if Stosur has struggled to keep her physical game intact, a problem that she has never really had to face.

But if anything was worrying the Australian heading to Madrid this week, she had a good way of hiding it. And she may have started to leave her worries behind her after dispatching world No. 9 Dominika Cibulkova there in straight sets, her first win over a top-20 opponent in 2014. However impressive that and her second round win over Spain’s Garbine Muguruza were, Stosur knows there is still a lot of work to be done. After falling in straight sets to Maria Sharapova on Thursday, she’ll spend the next few weeks working hard on the practice court to further her partnership with Maclagan and get comfortable on the court again. But, after Stosur’s season which has been likened by some to the Australian playing tennis in the dark, there is light at the end of the tunnel.