Brian Teacher, Greg Rusedski's American coach, was having dinner when Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman defeated Petre Korda of the Czech Republic to book his US Open semi-final place against the British number one. "I got a friend to tape the match for me," the ultra laid-back Californian explained.

In the spring of last year Rusedski was slipping down the rankings and regularly losing matches. He needed a change and his agent, John Mayotte, the brother of Tim, contacted Andre Agassi's coach Brad Gilbert who recommended his Californian buddy, Teacher. "I flew over to St Polten and found Greg struggling. He was not being aggressive enough, wasn't focused on anything, and was lackadaisical about practice," said Teacher (42), whose greatest claim to fame as a player was winning the Australian Open in 1980.

The original announcement that he was to become Rusedski's coach took almost everybody by surprise. But Teacher liked what he saw, and the relationship quickly began to develop to the betterment of Rusedski's game. "It would be unfair to have called Greg a one-trick pony with that big serve, but he couldn't figure out why he kept losing. He was just a point or two away from victory most of the time." "Greg is very single-minded which is great for him and good for me. But to be honest, I did not think I would be sitting here today with Greg just one match away from the US Open final."

It has taken everybody by surprise, but then this has largely been an extremely unpredictable Grand Slam year. Teacher, a child of the 1960s, was clearly the coach-cum-guru the emotionally fragile Rusedski needed. During both Queen's, where he reached the semi-finals, and Nottingham, which he won, Rusedski's smile was noticeably absent. He snapped at some Croatian supporters in London during his match against Goran Ivanisevic, and threw his racket around at Nottingham. Teacher did not mind that. Better out than in.

The worst moment in their highly successful relationship came after Greg had reached the indoor final in San Jose in February, beating Agassi and Michael Chang, and taking a set off Pete Sampras before having to retire with an injured left wrist. For all his relaxed attitude to life Teacher has a quiet firmness and inner strength which means he gets his views across. "Greg can be stubborn. Sometimes I have to say `Come on, Greg, let's get out of this', but he's become much more flexible. He has the potential to win here, which is pretty incredible."

Incredible it is.