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Cape Town - The past week may have seemed for affable Neville Godwin like someone who has crashed his Mercedes car beyond repair - only to learn the next day that he has won a Ferrari in a lottery.
The contrasting somersault in fortunes materialised in the wake of the announcement that Godwin's largely successful four-year tenure as coach of number one South African tennis player Kevin Anderson had come to an abrupt end.
But the shock turn of events was almost uncannily and instantly followed by the announcement that Godwin had been elected to the notable position as ATP "coach of the year" - a little surprisingly, it needs to be admitted, in view of the fact that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer had both made amazing revivals to their careers during the year and each annexed two prized Grand Slam titles.
Anderson, for his part, despite improving his world ranking from deep in the 70s during the year to a highly creditable 14th, did not win an ATP title of any kind in this period, although achieving the commendable feat of reaching the US Open final before losing to an irrepressible Nadal.
So what then is behind the untimely divorce of the Anderson-Godwin tennis matrimony, with the announcement that both were now seeking new challenges and are parting on an amicable basis and as "best friends" not entirely logical and convincing.
What is more, the news of the split emerged from the Anderson camp, with Godwin, a former world top 90 player in his own right, steadfastly refusing to elaborate further on the matter and throwing more light on the exact reasons the two going their own ways.
One viewpoint bandied about is that Anderson's unexpected, somewhat alarming slump in results after his memorable feat in the US Open has a great deal to do with it.
In his five most recent tournaments Anderson has not won more than one match in any of them, with a somewhat dismal record of three wins and fives losses and the looming prospect of securing a prestige top 10 world ranking biting the dust.
So whatever the reason, the partnership that appeared to be firmly and glowingly cemented after Flushing Meadows has now bitten the dust.
And, perhaps a little unkindly, some have suggested that the coaches who chose Godwin above the likes of Federer's Ivan Ljubicic and Nadal's Carlos Moya as the year's leading mentor were influenced to a degree by a measure of sympathy for one of their own kind and intent on stamping a new face among those gaining top honours.
