==================
SONY ERICSSON OPEN (Miami, Florida, USA; outdoor hard; WTA Tier I)
================== http://www.sonyericssonopen.com/

Fans of Vera Zvonarëva should read my combined report instead:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeldani/message/3913

------
Photos
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Daniela and Vera:
http://www.tennis.info/Miami7.html (Third round - day 1)
Search Getty Images for "hantuchova"

Bepa won the match, but Daniela won the beauty-contest. ;-)

Daniela only:
http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.php?t=278875&page=25 (to 26)

-----------
Third round (Sunday 25th March)
-----------

- DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [16,EF] lt. VERA ZVONARËVA [18,EF], 2-6 4-6

I was expecting a much closer match than this, but it's more akin to
Bepa's 6-2 6-2 thrashing of Daniela in their only prior encounter -
Auckland 2006. Daniela likes to spread her opponents laterally, but
Bepa has amazing lateral retrieval-skills, as well as flairsome power.


I Heart Masha <http://www.wtaworld.com/showpost.php?p=10377661>:
>>>
I watched Vera Zvonareva annihilate Hantuchova on Court 2 yesterday,
and it's easy to see why Vera can beat anyone in the world. When she
plays her best, she is extremely dangerous. She gets everything back,
has a good serve with a high first serve percentage, has powerful
groundstrokes, and is accurate.
<<<

I Heart Masha <http://www.wtaworld.com/showpost.php?p=10377776>:
>>>
I watched every minute as Vera annihilated Hantuchova on Court 2
yesterday, and came away very impressed. Vera was spectacular
defensively, running down almost everything. She served very well,
returned well, and from my vantage point, wasn't makng many UEs. She
looked confident, and basically, she just ran Hantuchova ragged.
<<<

First set
---------
HANTUCHOV __* *___ 2
ZVONARËVA @* * *@* 6

The match started at 14:12 EDT. I followed the live scoreboard, and
used the scoring-thread at:
http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.php?t=291552&page=120

NyCPsU: "daniela better not look at the sbs around the court, bc if
she sees that justine [Henin] and virginie [Razzano] are in a 3rd she
will lose this match :o"

Daniela serving 0-0: broken to love!

Wintermute: "Very windy on court today. Is this going to be an error-
fest?"

Bepa serving 1-0: scoreboard froze... held to 15.
Daniela serving 0-2: 0/15, 40/15, held.

Bepa won 9 of the first 10 points, but at least Daniela's avoided the
double bagel! :o

Bepa serving 2-1: 15/15, 15/30, 40/30, held.

Well recovered Bepa! :worship:

Daniela serving 1-3: 0/15, 40/15, 40/30, held.

And Daniela! :worship: These score-sequences are just breathtaking!

And Henin is down 1-5* in the third, so it looks like it'll be
Razzano next for the winner of Daniela v Bepa!

Bepa serving 3-2: 0/40 (3 BPs) -> 40/40, ad D (BP #4), Deuce #2,
ad B, held.

Daniela's back to her old habit of squandering break-points - you
can't afford to do that against one of the best fighters in the game.

Daniela serving 2-4: broken to love.

Bepa serving 5-2: 15/0, 15/15, 30/15,, 40/30 (SP), Bepa won the first
set 6-2 at 14:42 (30 minutes).

And Henin has levelled her third set at 5-5.

Is it to be a repeat of Bepa's 6-2 6-2 win at Auckland 2006?


Second set
----------
HANTUCHOV __* * * *_ 4
ZVONARËVA @* * * * * 6

Daniela serving 0-0: 0/30 -> 40/30, 40/40, ad B (BP), Deuce #2,
ad B (BP #2), Deuce #3, ad B (BP #3), broken.

A good partial recovery from Daniela, but there's an air of
inevitability about Bepa winning these long games today.

Meanwhile, Henin has recovered from *5-6 (0/30) to take her third set
to a tiebreak... and has recovered from 0/2 to 5/2*... but Razzano
levels up at 5/5*!

Bepa serving 1-0: 0/15, 15/15, 15/30, 40/30, 40/40, ad B, held.

Yeah, right - inevitable.

Daniela serving 0-2: 30/0, 30/15... held.

Sorry - I got a bit distracted noticing that Henin now has match-
point... in fact, has just won 6-2 2-6 7-6 (7/5).

That's a considerable blow to the winner of Daniela v Bepa - Henin
proved once more just how difficult it is to put her away.

Bepa serving 2-1: held to love.
Daniela serving 1-3: scoreboard froze... 30/15... 40/30, 40/40, ad D,
held.

At last Daniela wins a long game, and has at least equalled the
double swan Bepa gave her at Auckland 2006! :o

Bepa serving 3-2: held to love.

Wintermute: "It's always hard to go from winning Indian Wells to
playing well in Miami. Only a few can do it. Conditions are tough
today, Daniela is probably still tired. She's struggling."

Daniela serving 2-4: 0/15, 15/15, 15/30, 30/30, 30/40 (BP), 40/40,
ad D, Deuce #2, ad D, held.

Do I detect a tiny shift in momentum here? Bepa had good chances to
win that game.

The problem is, Daniela just can't break the Bepster's serve today.

Bepa serving 4-3: 15/0, 15/15, 40/15, 40/30, held.
Daniela serving 3-5: held to love.

Daniela keeps the pressure on, minimising the time between Bepa's
previous service-game and her serving for the match...

Bepa serving 5-4: 30/0 -> 30/30, 40/30 (MP #1), Bepa won 6-2 6-4 at
15:30 (second set 48 minutes, match 1h18m).

So how do I feel now? I feel philosophical about Daniela's loss,
because Bepa is supremely talented, and can also drive you wild with
her amazing retrieval. I'm very pleased to have Bepa through to the
fourth round.

Daniela had her star-turn at Indian Wells... Miami is Bepa's turn!


Statistics
----------

Daniela's old habit of squandering break-points let her down again,
as she converted 0 of 4 BPs, while Bepa broke 3 times from 6 BPs.

Bepa won 45% of the points when Daniela was serving (58% in the first
set), while Daniela won only 30% on Bepa's serve.

Bepa served 4 aces and 2 double faults, Daniela one ace and 3 double
faults.

Bepa got 68% of first serves in, winning 77% of the points when she
did so, and 56% on second serve. The corresponding statistics for
Daniela were 62%, 67% and 36% (Daniela's serve was particularly poor
in the first set: 58%, 55% and 25%).

In points, Bepa won 66-49 (first set 29-17 - almost twice as many
points as Daniela - while the second set was much closer at 37-32).


Daniela quotes
--------------

"It was tough. The conditions were very difficult. I think in the
other results that some of the top players were struggling a bit,
too. It's never easy to play here, so I was expecting a tough match.

"I have to give credit to the way she played. She played very, very
good. She didn't miss too many balls, and she was very solid.

"I was really looking forward to playing again, even though I was a
little bit tired; I just tried to get my energy back in the last few
days. Just tried to stay calm, even though it's a crazy tournament -
there's a lot of happenings. I just tried to stay focused, and today
just didn't work out.

"But it's just tennis. It's a part of the game, part of the life. You
have ups and downs. As long as you give your best every day, it's
fine.

"Definitely I've learned so many lessons [over the last few years].
In the beginning, it was just everything happening too fast. I don't
think I was ready for it. Prepared. But now I know much, much more
how to deal with any kind of situation that comes my way. I
understand that it's not always everything going to be perfect, and
it's okay, sometimes, to have a bad day and not to play well.
Not to be always expecting for myself to do everything 100%.

"I was expecting so much from myself [when I was coming up]. If
everything was not going my way, I was not really ready to handle
that. Plus there was so much pressure from outside, and from all
kinds of things. It was just too much.

"I definitely always believed I would be top ten at least. I know I
can play against anyone - and if I play well, that I can beat anyone.
And right now I know that more than anything, it's important that I
just focus on my game. Don't really care who is on the other side of
the court, and then the results will come.

"I love the challenges [of being a tennis-pro]. I love walking on the
court every single day, and knowing that there's still so much I can
prove to myself and improve in my game. Just at the moment, I'm just
enjoying the game so much, and I don't really care if I'm winning or
losing - I'm just happy to be on the court."

[Re. winning Indian Wells]
"Relief, definitely. I had so many people telling me all the time
that I only won one tournament and all this stuff. I think now I
proved to everybody that I can do it again. Just pure joy of, you
know, the moments I had on the court are just fantastic. Some
beautiful memories.

"I much more prefer to win the big ones once in a while than having
to win more of the little ones. I much more prefer this."

[Re. Martina Hingis]
"I've always admired the way she plays. She's one of the few people
that actually uses her brain on the court. So I'd really like to be
compared to her than to someone else. Here, playing doubles with her,
it is a lot of fun. There is so much I can learn from her. Maybe I
can figure out if I'm at least at her level."


Here are some old quotes I found about Daniela's piano-playing
experience:

"I did some pretty big concerts, and I can tell you I've never, ever
been so nervous in my life. When I was about 13 or 14, a couple of
hundred at least would be watching, maybe a thousand. It was scary
stuff, but it prepared me well for the tennis-circuit, so it was good.

"I really enjoyed playing. It was very difficult time-wise, because I
had my school in the morning, tennis-practice, then piano, then
tennis again, and then study in the evening. So I was finishing my
day at 11, 11:30. Every day was like that from eight o'clock in the
morning, and I loved it because there wasn't any one second I had
some free time. I couldn't understand the kids when they were saying
they were so bored. I never knew anything like that."

----------------------
Second round revisited (Friday 23rd March)
----------------------

+ DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [16,EF] d. Michelle Larcher de Brito [WC],
7-5 6-0


Larcher de Brito quotes
-----------------------

"She played a great match, and she's also a great person. It wasn't
very easy, and she definitely played really well.

"I was a lot more nervous, such a big court and such a big stadium.
At first I was pretty nervous, but I got used to it and just try to
ignore it a bit and just play.

"I was definitely happy. I played really well. Well, I /think/ I
played really well. She played very well. She's a great player. I'm
pretty happy. Even though the score was 6-Love, I still think I
played really well, and being my first time, as well.

"This is my first match I have played and not cried! <laughing> This
is my first match I've played and I walked off the court smiling
because I was proud of myself how I played."

[Re. what Nick Bollettieri said to her in the on-court coaching]
"Just staying my focus. Just trying to get my serve in, because I
wasn't serving that well. It was really windy, and just trying to
keep my focus with my feet and just carry on playing; not really
worry about the score because it was my first big match, my third
professional tournament."

[Re. the difference between pros and juniors]
"It's definitely the competition. I mean, the girls as professionals
hit the ball ten times harder. It's so much harder to keep a rally
going with them.

"I definitely think I'm still 14. I'm not a pro yet. I don't even
have a ranking yet because you have to play three tournaments before
you get a ranking. I still think I'm a 14-year-old playing on that
court, and I just try and not think about it."

[Re. Daniela]
"She's a very, very nice person. She wished me good luck after, and
she said I have a great career ahead of me. She's a great player.
She's a great person, as well. She's very nice."

-------
Doubles
-------

(Daniela Hantuchová [EF]/Martina Hingis)[WC]:
2r + Elena Likhovtseva/Elena Vesnina, 6-3 6-3
qf + Mara Santangelo/Bryanne Stewart, 6-1 6-2
sf - (CARA BLACK/LIEZEL HUBER)[2], 4-6 3-6


================
Next tournaments
================

Daniela's next tournament is Amelia Island (week of 2nd April). I
thought she had sensibly decided to skip the green clay of America,
but apparently she's made a late entry - perhaps because of her early
exit at Miami.

Daniela has been named Fed Cup captain(!) for Slovakia, and will play
in the World Group II first-round tie against Czechia on 21st & 22nd
April (her last day as a 23-year-old, and Nicole Vaidišová's last day
as a 17-year-old).

PA Sport via www.wimbledon.org:
>>>
Daniela Hantuchová will lead Slovakia in the Fed Cup encounter with
Czech Republic next month.

Igor Moška, secretary general of the Slovakian tennis-association,
confirmed the 23-year-old's participation in the World Group II match
which will take place in Bratislava on April 21 and 22.

Moška told www.tenis.sme.sk: "Daniela Hantuchová will be the captain
of our team in the Fed Cup match against Czech Republic. She wanted
to play on clay, so we decided for this surface."

He added: "Other members of our team will be Dominika Cibulková,
Janette Husárová and Magdaléna Rybáriková.

"Jarmila Gajdošová announced that she will not play, and Martina
Suchá will decide after coming back from a tournament in Miami.

"This match will probably be the most important sporting-event in the
first half of 2007 in Slovakia."

Slovakia have played Czech Republic in the Fed Cup once before on a
hard surface, losing 2:1 in 2000. On that occasion, Hantuchová beat
Kveta Hrdlicková [now Peschke] 6-4 6-2, but Karina Habšudová lost
6-4 6-4 to Denisa Chládková before Habšudová and Hantuchová went down
7-5 6-3 to Dája Bedánová and Hrdlicková.
<<<

--
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/