By Mikhil Bhat/Doha

Evolution and change were a common theme yesterday at the Qatar Total Open.
A lot has changed in the last year or so for Caroline Wozniacki—back to old racquet, new ring, new coaching arrangement. She even has had to battle a shoulder injury at the beginning of the 2014 season.
Former world number one Jelena Jankovic spoke about all the hard work and changes she made to her regime to get herself back into the top-10 after slipping out of it in the last two years.
Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has been working with a new trainer.
“You always try and improve, evolve and try to better your game. You know, tennis is always improving, everybody is improving, so you need to keep up,” the former Danish world number one said yesterday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
Wozniacki, who got engaged to Irish golfer Rory McIlroy recently, had hired Thomas Hogstedt to be her coach in the off-season going into 2014. Piotr, her father, had been her coach till then.
She has since parted ways with Hogstedt, who had earlier worked with Maria Sharapova and Li Na, and has started working with compatriot Michael Mortensen.
“Well, my dad is still there. I have Marta Domahovska. She is the hitting partner as long as she wants to be, as long as she finds that fun and interesting. You know, she’s a great girl and has been on the tour as well, been in the top 40 and hits the ball very hard, which is great for me and good to practice,” Wozniacki, who moved back to using a Babolat from Yonex last year, added.
“Then, Michael Mortensen is helping for a few tournaments. He’s going to be around until Miami, and then we take it from there.”
Hogstedt was quoted as saying that Wozniacki, who despite having stayed at the top of the rankings for 67 weeks never won a Grand Slam, “needs to play more aggressive”.
Jankovic is another former world number who has not won a singles Grand Slam title despite having reached the top of the rankings.
But after a long off-season last year due to a muscle tear, Jankovic has managed to get back into the top 10 for a promising revival.
“It’s a lot of hard work and determination. I tore my muscle last year in Melbourne, in my stomach, after that, basically like I had another off-season.
“And after that, I really, you know, made up my mind to come back, to give myself an opportunity to do well in big tournaments and play with top players,” said Jankovic, whose best Grand Slam result was a runner-up finish at the 2008 US Open.
“You have to be healthy, and in order to be healthy you have to put in hard work to prevent injuries. So I started to work hard, and I just put in a lot of work on the tennis court and in the gym, as well. It gave me a lot of confidence and I saw that I was improving. That motivated me. I enjoyed that process, which was a lot of fun for me,” the Serb added.
Kvitova said that she has been working on her movements on the court. “I have a new fitness trainer. I started in Monaco end of last season. We have mostly been thinking about my movement on the court; I’m more into running and sprinting now to be quicker and fitter on the court.”
Despite a good ending to 2013, which saw her finishing in the last four in all the three tournaments she played in, the Czech player has had a slow start to the 2014 season. She lost in the Sydney semi-final to 107-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova before bowing out of the Australian Open in the first round.
The world number six said she remembered her run in Doha last year very well, when she came close to beating Serena Williams in the quarter-finals.
“I really played great tennis,” Kvitova said, referring to the last year’s quarter-final. “I lost, but still I got some confidence from that match, and it was really great for me for the next matches. She was No. 1 after she defeated me, so it was nice for her as well.”