A week after the national head of women's tennis, Nicole Pratt, described as "alarming" the dearth of players on the verge of cracking the top 100, Stosur has conceded that this is a low point in a cycle that will, nevertheless, inevitably turn again.

As, indeed, it recently has among the Australian men transitioning into the post-Hewitt era, with 23-and-unders Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios both in the top 30, and teenager Thanasi Kokkinakis already at No.78, among five men – including 60th-ranked Sam Groth – in the top 100, and another five in the sub-200 bracket.

Aside from Stosur (27), the only women in double-figures are imported duo Daria Gavrilova and Ajla Tomljanovic, who are both awaiting the delivery of their citizenship papers to be able to represent their adopted nation at more than just the four grand slams. Jarmila Gajdosova is next at No.106.

"It's not good when you think about it like that, but I guess unfortunately that's where we are at the moment on the women's side," said Stosur, who has spent the past week in Melbourne. "Five, six years ago it was all about the women, you were seeing the men were a bit dire as well, and now look where they are. So I think there's still a lot of hope that we can turn it around."

Stosur said Queensland juniors Kimberly Birrell and Priscilla Hon had both made good impressions as Fed Cup hitting partners this year, but rarely do players make a significant impact until reaching their early-mid-20s these days. At Birrell and Hon's age – 17 – the likes of Martina Hingis and Maria Sharapova were both winning grand slam singles titles. But that was then.

"In the men's game as well, really, you're not going to see that superstar at 18 winning a grand slam or making semis, like the likes of Hingis did; that's very abnormal and getting harder and harder to do, so we've just got to wait for a couple of these girls to step up and see how they can improve, and hopefully they'll be able to really take it from me when I do retire," Stosur, 31, said.

"But they need time. We've got to be patient. It's going to happen. For sure it'll happen again, but it's just one of those things – I think it always goes round in circles."

Stosur is preparing to go around for a 13th time at the Australian Open, and will join coach David Taylor on the practice court in Sydney next week before opening her season at the Brisbane International. Her year-end ranking of 27th was her lowest since 2008, and her six-and-a-half-year reign as the Australian No.1 ended by Bernard Tomic in September, but Stosur also won two singles titles during a morale-restoring claycourt season.

"It was a little bit up and down, but to still walk away with two titles and a fourth round at a slam and lose to the winner, it's not all bad," she said, having won the Strasbourg and Bad Gastein tournaments and been eliminated by Flavia Pennetta at the US Open. "Look, it's nice to still finish top 30 and obviously next year I'll be looking to improve on that, but still it's not too bad."