Bernard Tomic has turned to doubles greats Bob and Mike Bryan in a last-ditch and somewhat bizarre bid to find his feet on clay ahead of the French Open.
Tomic's troubles on his least preferred surface are well documented, just three victories at Roland Garros in seven years, with the one-time world No.17 never once venturing beyond the second round.
But after a horror start to the season, Tomic snapped a run of five-straight first-round defeats and began to show signs of life on the European clay.
He pushed world No.6 Milos Raonic to two tiebreakers after making the quarter-finals in Istanbul and his three wins on the slow surface are as promising as it gets for the 24-year-old fast-court specialist.
"Clay is not my favourite surface, as we all know, but I'm here to try and win as many as I can," Tomic told AAP ahead of Friday night's draw in Paris.
"I'm working here at Roland Garros and I'm going to try my best this week. That's all I can do."
Ranked 39th, Tomic needs to return to the top 32 to secure a seeding for Wimbledon, where he has made the fourth round three times and the quarter-finals as a teenager in 2011.
Grass undoubtedly represents his best chance of going deep at a grand slam.
So the appearance of the Bryan brothers at practice in Paris with Tomic on Thursday prompted the inevitable question of whether the three-time Wimbledon men's doubles champions were helping the Australian No.2 in any official capacity.
Tomic, who still lists his father John as his coach, was coy.
"No and yes so far. I can't say yes and I can't say no," he told AAP.
But after pointing out that the American identical twins had also twice won the French Open doubles, Tomic said the 16-times major winners could certainly add something to his game.
"They're legends of the doubles tour and they're good friends of mine, so we just practised today," he said.
"It was actually the first time. I know them well, but really I can't say (anymore)."
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