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QATAR TOTAL OPEN (Doha, Qatar; outdoor hard; WTA Tier II)
================ http://www.qatartennis.org/qatartotalopen/
Photos
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On-court:
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=hantuchova
Search Getty Images for "hantuchova"

Off-court:
http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.php?t=208809&page=7

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First round (Tuesday)
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+ DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [5] d. Kveta Peschke, 7-6 (7/4) 5-7 6-1

A 2h48m marathon for Daniela against the hard-hitting 30-year-old
Czech. Daniela hit 8 aces, and should have closed it out in two sets
as she was a set and a break up.

In the first set, Peschke "struggled with a weak serve initially"
[AP]. Daniela broke for *4-3, but was broken back to 4-4* before
winning it on the tiebreak.

Peschke won the second set by two breaks to one, but Daniela won the
last five games of the final set.

Daniela really needs to stop making such a meal of beating players
outside the top 32.


Daniela quotes
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"I was playing well in the first set, then for some reason I decided
to make it difficult for myself in the second set. I was able to get
back in form and win it. The conditions were very hot, but it was
the same for both of us.

"All credit to Kveta because she played a good match, and I am
relieved to be in the second round. The match could have gone either
way, but after she won the second set I decided to step up my game.

"I made the second set very difficult for myself, but I managed to
turn it around in the third. That was the best part of my match. How
I turned around the match in my favour gave me a lot of
satisfaction. At the moment, I am pleased about my game.

"Kveta is an experienced player so I was expecting it to be a tough
match. I was ready to battle out against her. I can say that I made
the match difficult for myself with some careless shots."

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Second round (Wednesday)
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- DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [5] lt. Li,Na, 7-6 (7/4) 5-7 6-1

I wasn't surprised when I saw this result, just one day after
Daniela's 2h48m marathon. Daniela is immensely fit (in both senses
of the word), but she's not Justine Henin-Hardenne when it comes to
recovering for the next day.

Daniela blew a lead of 6-4 *5-1 (40/15), wasting two /more/ match-
points when she served for it again at *5-3!

Daniela's year started so promisingly in Australia, but she's now
lost four times in a row in the second round (without byes), just as
she did between Rome and Wimbledon 2003, culminating in that tearful
loss to Shinobu Asagoe after leading 5-2* in the third set and
missing three match-points.

The difference now is that Daniela is older and more philosophical
than when she was 20 and struggling to hold onto a place in the top
ten. She's doing worse in all the post-AO tournaments than she did
last year, but now I believe she has the emotional maturity to
manage a slump better than in 2003.


In the 1990s there was a beautiful and flairsome Czech player called
Jana Novotná. She too suffered a famous choke at Wimbledon, crying
on the Duchess of Kent's shoulder after blowing a *4-1 (40/30) lead
in the third set of the 1993 final. She also managed to lose a 3r
match at the French Open 1995 after leading 5-0* (40/0) in the third
set and missing /nine/ match-points!

But there was enough justice in the world for Jana to end up winning
Wimbledon 1998 - her first Grand Slam singles-title, at the age of
29.

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Doubles
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DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ/AI SUGIYAMA [3]:
1r + Julia Schruff/Roberta Vinci, 6-2 6-3
qf + Jelena Jankovic/Selima Sfar, 7-6 (7/5) 6-1
sf + YAN,ZI/ZHENG,JIE [2], 3-6 6-2 6-0
f + Li,Ting/Sun,Tiantian, 6-4 6-4

This is the seventh WTA doubles-title of Daniela's career. Yan/Zheng
are the Australian Open champions, and Li/Sun the Athens 2004
Olympic champions!

Daniela isn't on the commitments for Indian Wells, and although
there is talk that she might take a late wild card into the
tournament, it looks like her next tournament will be Miami (22nd
March - 2nd April).

I'm disappointed that Daniela doesn't want to return to the scene of
her greatest triumph - her lone WTA singles-title coming at Indian
Wells 2002 with a coruscating 6-3 6-4 victory over Martina Hingis in
the final. But she has a poor win/loss record of 3-3 at Indian Wells
2003-2005.

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

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