As the smoke finally clears over the US Open and the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium go dim for another 12 months, the real analysis of the past two weeks begins. One player who should feel particularly concerned about her performance at Flushing Meadows is Samantha Stosur. The Australian, who was once touted by many as a multiple major winner, now finds herself at a crossroads in her career after failing to qualify for the season-ending WTA Championships in Turkey.

After she captured her first title since her 2011 US Open triumph at Carlsbad this summer, tennis pundits predicted something special once again for Stosur at Flushing Meadows.  But the momentum gained from her tournament victory quickly fell flat as Stosur’s untimely split with long-time coach Dave Taylor preceded a first-round loss to the 17-year-old Haitian-American qualifier Victoria Duval.

Now on the lookout for another coach while planning a way forward into 2014, Stosur’s manager Paul Kilderry said that she just needs some time to herself on the court to understand what she needs to climb back up the WTA rankings.

“There’s been a lot of interest to coach her, a lot of interest,” Kilderry said to the Associated Press. “There’s a couple of people that certainly she’s interested in but she wants to spend some time by herself at some events and work things out on her own a bit and see if that can give her a bit of insight into what she really thinks she needs.”

“She’s not in a hurry to jump into a new coaching relationship straight away”, he concluded.

With only four tournaments left in the year and no coach, one might think that Stosur would be anxious to hit the ground running in 2014. But friend and former women’s top-10 player Alicia Molik, who was asked by Stosur to act in a coaching/mentoring role during her 2013 US Open campaign, said a break away from the game would help her sort things out in her head

“I think it will be good for her to take time away after the US Open, and for her to really have some moments away from tennis, away from the limelight, away from tournaments, to really settle down and find the direction and the pathway, and the person that she feels will again bring out the best in her,” said Molik to the Associated Press.

But if Stosur is going to be the force that the world knows that she can be in 2014, the hard work needs to start now for the Australian. The first step needs to be choosing a coach, closely followed by attempting to iron out the mental fragility in her game. It has been this mental fragility that has often been her Achilles heel, and what better place to showcase a new mental resilience than the upcoming Australian summer where Sam has always struggled with the pressure heaped on her shoulders by the expectant Australian crowd.

Stosur now lies near the downside of her career at 29 years old and sits at just 18th on the WTA rankings after the first-round loss at the US Open. Her ability to consistently contend with the women’s top five has been questioned more than a few times, and her results have reflected almost the opposite of where many observers expected her to be at the end of the 2013 season.