Like any coach, Larri Passos was anxious to know how his pupil had done. Not on the court – he’d watched as his latest charge, 16-year-old Tamira Paszek, took out Elena Dementieva in three sets on Monday.

But he hadn’t seen Pazek give her first big, international post-match press conference – lunch in the players’ restaurant had beckoned. She did fine, he was assured.

Just then, Paszek walked up with her own lunch and sat down. He turned to the 16-year-old and joked, “I heard you talked a lot of BS.”

Mock-outrage, and then a chuckle. After all, laughter is a big part of the reason Paszek chose Passos as her coach. The former coach of three-time French Open champ Gustavo Kuerten is known for his jovial zeal. “He was one of the guys I was looking for, a coach with a very big heart, big focus,” she said. “Off court, we have a great time together.”

And make no mistake, says Passos, she chose him – not vice versa. “She saw me. She tell her father, ‘I want to talk with Larri.’”

“I was shy,” said Paszek, munching away. “I cannot just go up and start talking to him.” She had to settle for a taking a picture with Passos instead, at the US Open in 2004 when Paszek was playing the juniors.

In October 2005, their paths reconnected. Passos got a call from Paszek’s father Mohamed Ariff, asking if he would come to Austria to watch his daughter.

Passos had no other commitments – Kuerten was off the tour with hip problems – but wasn’t sure he wanted the grind of the pro tour again. “At first I was not interested,” said Passos. “I was living in paradise [Brazil]... and I get a lot of offers during the year.”

But the Paszeks’ persistence eventually captured his attention. “I spoke with my wife and said to her, ‘I have some feeling. I think I go to Austria.’”

He flew there in November, leaving behind the southern hemisphere summer to spend a week in wintery Europe. “When I got there, it was the worst week of my life – it was minus 4. Then I went to an indoor court to see this girl hitting and I said to myself, ‘Oh my gosh.’”

The following season, Paszek attended Passos’ tennis camp in Camborio, near Kuerten’s hometown of Florianapolis, Brazil. She liked it so much she insisted on attending it for longer than her father wanted.

One of the effects of Passos’ involvement in Paszek’s career has been a change in her relationship with her dad. Read between the lines as Paszek describes her family. “My mom takes it easy. My brother is at home. My dad is taking it more relaxed... now,” she said. “Now it’s just like father and daughter.”

Her game is also different. “I need to change all the strokes, but I couldn’t say that to her,” said Passos with a sly grin. “So I have to do it slowly... fix, fix fix.”

“And it’s true!” Paszek broke in. “I never realized what he changed.”

The adjustments Passos made to every part of Paszek’s game – forehand, serve, footwork, even her stellar backhand – can be quantified in a rankings rise from about No. 300 to No. 54 over the last year. She’ll be well inside the Top 40 after Wimbledon and might arrive at the US Open as a seeded player.

During this run, she won her first WTA title win as a qualifier at Portoroz last September. Passos wasn’t there to see it – he and assistant coach Roland Santos alternate their time between Kuerten and Paszek – but the two kept in touch by phone and email. In February, she took Justine Henin to three sets in Dubai. Passos didn’t see that either – he was in Las Vegas with Kuerten, following the scores on the internet.

But his hand has been the guiding one. He deliberately set her a tough clay schedule this spring to toughen her up for the rest of the year – Warsaw, Berlin, Rome and Paris.

Overall, however, he feels his biggest impact has been mental. “Most importantly, I gave her a lot of confidence,” he said. “Now she knows how to play the important moments.”

The Brazilian-Austrian pairing is a geographical oddity, but that doesn’t faze someone with Paszek’s exotic background. Her father is of Indian heritage and born in Tanzania with time spent living in Kenya and Canada. Her mother was born in Chile and raised in Austria.

As for Passos, the decision to take on another project was borne of sheer personal conviction. There are plenty of other things to occupy his time. Last year, he reunited with Kuerten when the former No. 1 returned to the tour following hip surgery, and also has 74 kids training in his Brazilian camp. Part of the mission is to give underprivileged children a chance to play tennis. “I don’t have a sponsor,” he shrugged, mystified. “So I put my own money into it.”

Deciding to work with Paszek was part of a similar drive to do something worthwhile. “I did it because I had a good feeling,” he said. “To go to $50,000 [challengers] in France – I used to go to go to Grand Slams with the world No. 1.”

Neither he nor Paszek will be drawn on just how good Paszek might be. “I have personal goals,” said Paszek. “No one knows – not Larri, not my parents.”

But whatever those goals are, they’re for the long-term. After her third-round win, Paszek was told she had secured almost $100,000 in prize money. It struck her as unreal. “I don't play for the money,” she said. “I'm 16. I just play because I love the game, it’s so much fun to me. The money, I have enough time. I need to develop my game and just keep working hard on myself.”

After ending the youngster’s run in the fourth round, Kuznetsova said, “I think she can be very good.” But, observed Kuznetsova, Paszek had faded as the match went on. “In the second set, normally people can get back and start to play better, but it didn’t happen,” said Kuznetsova. “During the match I put more and more pressure on her. She was playing worse, worse, worse.”

Still, Paszek leaves with her best Grand Slam result to date, the $100,000 she won in prize money, and finally – a win on Court 3 under her belt.

She had lost all her previous matches on it, including a loss in the junior girls singles final in 2005, before finally getting the upset against Dementieva. “They say Court 2 is the graveyard court, but for me it was Court 3,” said Paszek. “But I finally won one, so that’s done.”

So was her lunch. As she picked up her plate and went to put it away, Passos reminded her to be in the gym at 6:00. "Don't forget or you'll be in trouble," he growled.

And then came the grin. Just another joke.