Second round:
+ DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [20] d. Shahar Peer, 2-6 6-2 6-3

Daniela came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders, playing like
she was going to crush the Israeli retriever 6-0 6-0 with her sharp,
flairsome groundstrokes mixed with delicate dropshots that saw her
surge to a 3-0 lead.

But, as everyone knows who's used to watching Daniela's matches,
it's never that simple. It was clear towards the end of the first
set that Peer's ability to make Daniela hit one more ball could turn
it into a Asagoe-esque nightmare if Daniela's brilliant form went
off the boil (Shinobu Asagoe beat Daniela 0-6 6-4 12-10 in 2r
Wimbledon 2003 - that infamous match where Daniela was crying on
court after blowing a 5-2 lead with three match-points in the third).

Daniela had a walkabout at the start of the second set, allowing
Peer to take a 4-0 lead. Then BBCi (Freeview version) left the
match, so I switched channels and watched Maria Sharapova kick Sesil
Karatantcheva's butt off instead. Daniela went on to drop the second
set, but the lone break of the third set came against Peer in the
second game of the third, and Daniela was able to serve it out.

==========================
Order of Play for Saturday
==========================

Court One (start 12:00 BST = 11:00 GMT)
WS 3r: Katarina Srebotnik v MARIA SHARAPOVA [2]
WS 3r: VENUS WILLIAMS [14] v DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [20]
MS 3r: Igor Andreev v ANDY RODDICK [2]

As noted in my tournament-preview, Venus certainly has the edge over
Daniela on paper. But Daniela is hitting the ball beautifully at the
moment, she has nothing to lose against Williams, so hopefully
she'll relax and play a good match.

The Venus Williams of 2005 is much more fallible than a couple of
years ago, so I give Daniela a fighting chance of upsetting the all-
Williams fourth round that the media seem so certain about (using
words such as "will" rather than "would"). Pod'me Daniela!

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/hantu/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/danielahantuchova/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeldani/