Former world tennis No.1 Andy Roddick will have a new coach in place of legendary Jimmy Connors at the Australian Open in January.
Roddick has hired fellow American Larry Stefanki as his new mentor and announced the move on his personal website on Thursday.
Stefanki has previously coached John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Tim Henman and most recently Fernando Gonzalez. Under his guidance both Rios and Kafelnikov reached the world No.1 spot.
Roddick, 26, reached the No.1 ranking in 2003 when he also won the US Open but is now at number six in the rankings and suffered a miserable end of season when injury forced him to quit the Masters Cup in Shanghai.
His best grand slam result in 2008 was a quarter-final berth in the US Open before losing to Novak Djokovic.
"The timing of this exciting new partnership provides the duo (Roddick and Stefanki) the majority of the off-season to prepare for 2009," said a statement on www.andyroddick.com.