Anderson sticks with Godwin

Johannesburg - Former South African Davis Cup squad player Neville Godwin has renewed his contract with Kevin Anderson and will continue coaching the world's 16th-ranked singles player during 2015.

"The contract stipulates that the partnership will extend for 35 weeks in the year," Godwin said during a media conference call on Tuesday.

"It starts with the Brisbane ATP event, moving to New Zealand for the Auckland Open and then going onto Melbourne, the first Grand Slam event of the year at the Australian Open."

Godwin described his initial year as Anderson's coach as "revealing, rewarding and successful -- with a lot of positives emerging".

Anderson's achievements during 2014 spoke for themselves, as he improved his best-ever world ranking from 20th to 16th.

He had creditable performances in the Grand Slam tournaments in which he progressed to the fourth round of the Australian Open and downed Stanislas Wawrinka, world number-four, on three occasions.

"For all this we will be looking to make further progress in 2015 and seeking improvement in a number of key areas."

Godwin said he and Anderson had not set any specific targets for the coming year.

"If you produce the results and keep improving the rankings will look after itself. I believe Kevin is definitely top-10 material and if we make the progress in the areas we are seeking, there is every reason to believe he could ultimately make this breakthrough.

"That includes progressing to a Grand Slam quarterfinal and further for the first time."

Godwin said he believed that a key area of improvement in Anderson's repertoire was his serve -- even if he was currently regarded as one of the best servers in the world.

"The more feared his serve can become, the more pressure he will put on his opponents. This in turn will take the pressure off him with the assurance that he will always be able to hold his own service."

Godwin said Anderson had lost a number of matches to noticeably lower-ranked opponents who had moved him round the court to good advantage.

"Not that Kevin is a bad mover. He is a totally dedicated, hard worker but at 6ft 8in (2.07m) he is a big guy and perhaps a little improvement can be achieved in this respect.

"He is also superbly fit as he showed through a number of extended matches during the past year, but there are no limits to fitness and we are looking to take Kevin's fitness to an even higher level."