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DFS CLASSIC (Edgbaston, Birmingham, England; grass; WTA Tier III)
=========== http://birmingham.lta.org.uk/
Contents
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1. Photos
2. Third-round result
3. Quarter-final eyewitness report: Hantuchová v Bartoli
4. Doubles round-up

I still have Sunday's report & photos to write up and post, but these
will have to wait for either a large gap in Wimbledon, or possibly
after Wimbledon.

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1. Photos
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1.1 My photos from Wednesday
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Permission to copy my Birmingham photos is granted provided that:
(a) no money is exchanged;
(b) they are labelled as "Copyright 2007 Andrew Broad".
Please let me know if you do use them on another website.

I have uploaded all my photos for Wednesday 13th June 2007, in one
big zip-file, to:
http://www.divshare.com/download/1031004-107

Wednesday's players:

Maria Sharapova (17)
Sania Mirza (7)
Alyona Bondarenko (7)
Marion Bartoli (6)
Kateryna Bondarenko (6)
Daniela Hantuchová (4)
Mara Santangelo (4)
Lilia Osterloh (4)
Yuliana Fedak (3)
Vera Zvonarëva (1)
Tsvetana Pironkova (1)
Urszula Radwanska (1)
Angelique Kerber (1)
Naomi Cavaday (1)

Daniela did not play on Wednesday, but I saw her buying a crępe and a
bottle of Diet Coke from the crępe-stand at 15:25 BST!


1.2 My photos from Saturday
---------------------------

I have uploaded all my photos for Saturday 16th June 2007, in one big
zip-file, to:
http://www.divshare.com/download/1049942-b32

Saturday's players:

Daniela Hantuchová (50 photos)
Alyona Bondarenko (38)
Maria Sharapova (36)
Marion Bartoli (28)
Séverine Brémond (17)
Nathalie Dechy (15)
Tamira Paszek (10)
Jelena Jankovic (7)
Liezel Huber (6)
Cara Black (5)

Permission to copy my Birmingham photos is granted provided that:
(a) no money is exchanged;
(b) they are labelled as "Copyright 2007 Andrew Broad".
Please let me know if you do use them on another website.


1.3 Other photos
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http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=hantuchova
Search Getty Images for "hantuchova"
http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/1/newsroom/stories/?ContentID=1435
http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/1/newsroom/stories/?ContentID=1440

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2. Third-round result (Saturday 16th June)
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+ DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [3,EF] d. ELENI DANIILIDOU [15], 7-6 (7/3) 6-4

This win was enough to move Daniela up to #10 in the rankings on 18th
June - her highest since she dropped from #9 to #14 on 8th September
2003.

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3. Quarter-final eyewitness report: Hantuchová v Bartoli
(Saturday 16th June)
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Suspended until Sunday:
* DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [3,EF] v MARION BARTOLI [5,S],
7-5 4-6 *0-0 (30/40)

A frustrating match for me as a Daniela-fan, because I believe that
Daniela is much more talented than Marion, especially on grass, but
she failed to impose herself at the right times. Indeed, Daniela
started the match like she was going to sweep Marion aside, winning
the first six points of the match to go 1-0* (30/0) up. But after
squandering two break-points at 15/40 in that game, it was Marion who
broke first to go *3-2 up. Marion took an off-court medical time-out
when she was about to serve for the first set at 5-4. She resumed
with two double faults as Daniela reeled off the next three games to
take the first set.

Daniela was broken in the first game of the second set, and then just
couldn't make any impression on Marion's serve as Marion clung to
that break like a limpet. Marion is a Selesian player (two hands both
sides), and she hit plenty of groundstroke-winners throughout the
match, particularly crosscourt ones.

It was a high-quality match - unfortunately I can't say the same
about the view, as the first two sets were played on the very humble
setting of Court 4 after rain had caused a terrible backlog; the
match attracted a large crowd, and my decision to watch Alyona
Bondarenko v Jelena Jankovic beforehand cost me a seat by Court 4, so
I actually had to stand by Court 3 and watch the match from an angle
(it was actually scheduled for Court 3, which the rain had made
unplayable, so I had no idea when it was going to start).

By the end of the second set, it was getting cold, dark and slippery.
With Daniela facing break-point at 30/40 in the first game of the
third, both players stopped playing, went to the net, and after a
lengthy discussion with the officials, it was suspended overnight,
with both players agreeing to play the final on Sunday should the
winner happen to defeat Maria Sharapova in the semi-finals.

My full match-report, with a description of every point up to the
overnight suspension, can be found at...
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/hantu/reports.html

...along with a brief report on Daniela's third-round match against
Eleni Daniilidou (which I missed because I chose to watch Maria
Sharapova v Tamira Paszek instead - and a wonderful match it was,
too).

The win over Daniilidou was enough to move Daniela up to #10 in the
rankings on 18th June - her highest since she dropped from #9 to #14
on 8th September 2003.

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4. Doubles round-up
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First round
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- (DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [EF]/SANIA MIRZA [DF])[4] lt.
Sun,Tiantian/Meilen Tu, walkover

There were walkovers left, right and centre in the doubles-event, as
rain prevented much play on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, leaving
the tournament with a huge backlog in both singles and doubles. The
organisers wanted to use the indoor-courts, but none of the players
had the appropriate footwear.

Daniela pulled out of the doubles on Saturday evening, following the
suspension of her singles quarter-final. It's a shame I didn't get to
see her play with Sania - another player with groundstrokes of
flairsome power!

--
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/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharapova_vaidisova_hantuchova/