===============
AUSTRALIAN OPEN
(Melbourne, Australia; outdoor hard (Plexicushion); Grand Slam)
=============== http://www.australianopen.com/
Contents
--------

1. Photos
2. Third round: Hantuchová v Ruano Pascual review
3. Fourth-round draw: Bottom half
4. Quarter-final draw: Top half
5. Andrew's wishes
6. Women's Doubles
7. Order of Play for Monday

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1. Photos
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Daniela Hantuchová:
http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/players/99/photos
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=hantuchova
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/players/wta080394.html
search Getty Images for "hantuchova"

Various players including Daniela:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7198528.stm
http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/2/photogallery/

Many players:
http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/gallery?pg=1&cap=1

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2. Third round: Hantuchová v Ruano Pascual review
(Sunday 20th January)
-------------------------------------------------

Nice winner, nice loser:
+ DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [9,EF] d. Virginia Ruano Pascual, 6-2 6-3

A very satisfactory result, as Daniela moves into her 6th fourth
round in the 9 Grand Slams since the start of 2006, with her best
chance of reaching her first Grand Slam quarter-final since the
Australian Open 2003.

In the first set, games went with serve until Daniela broke for *4-2;
in fact she won the last four games of the set to take it 6-2.

Daniela was broken in the first game of the second set, but broke
back immediately, and again for *3-1. The rest of the match went with
serve, thus Daniela won 6-3.

Daniela had a spectacular W:UE ratio of 33:27, while Ruano Pascual's
was a woeful 5:14 - it seems obvious from this that Daniela was able
to dominate the match with her flairsome power and spreading rallies.
She also came to the net quite a bit, winning 10 of 14 points there.

Daniela's serves were much faster than Ruano Pascual's; she won 73%
of the points on her own serve (including an amazing 80% on second
serve), and 47% on Ruano Pascual's - eating up first /and/ second
serves. Daniela broke 4 times from 8 break-points, while Ruano
Pascual could only manage one break from 3 BPs.


2.1 Articles
------------

Hantuchová breezes into last 16 [CEEFAX 493]
>>>
Ninth seed Daniela Hantuchová made short work of her rain-delayed
third-round match against Virginia Ruano Pascual at the Australian
Open.

The Slovakian saw off her Spanish opponent 6-2 6-3 to set up a last-
16 clash with Russia's Maria Kirilenko.

Nadia Petrova, seeded 14, had to work a bit harder to see off fellow
Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-1 7-6 (10/8).

And Poland's Marta Domachowska surprised 24th seed Li,Na of China 2-6
6-2 6-4.
<<<

Domachowska shocks Li [Teletext 497]
>>>
Polish qualifier Marta Domachowska reached the fourth round of a
Grand Slam for the first time with a battling win over 24th seed
Li,Na.

The Chinese star took the first set, but 22-year-old Domachowska hit
back to claim a 2-6 6-2 6-4 victory.

Ninth seed Daniela Hantuchová and Nadia Petrova, seeded 14th, also
won delayed third-round matches along with Danish teenager Caroline
Wozniacki.
<<<

Hantuchová on track for finals
By Adele Holland <www.australianopen.com>
>>>
Daniela Hantuchová breezed through to the fourth round today, winning
her third-round match against Virginia Ruano Pascual in straight sets.

Despite hitting 27 unforced errors, Hantuchová dominated the match,
winning in just over an hour.

Spain's Ruano Pascual, fought for her serve early in the match,
Hantuchová getting an early break in the first set despite Ruano
Pascual's aggressive play.

Hantuchová didn't seem worried though: despite a slight lack of
concentration, her return was strong, and she took out the first set
easily: 6-2.

Ruano Pascual took advantage of Hantuchová's unforced errors in the
second set, breaking the Slovakian in the first game.

Hantuchová came back with a vengeance though, breaking back
immediately to even out the score.

Ruano Pascual had difficulty pulling off important shots, and
struggled at the net, while Hantuchová hit 33 winners.

Looking like she wanted to get the match over and done with,
Hantuchová really made her mark late in the second set, and showed
the crowd why she is the No.9 seed. She looked relaxed as she took
the final set 6-3.
<<<

2.2 Fourth-round preview
------------------------

This sets up a mouthwatering fourth-round clash with Maria Kirilenko,
even though I would have preferred it to be Anna Chakvetadze who came
through.

DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [9,EF]:
1r + Vania King, 6-3 7-5
2r + Alizé Cornet, 6-2 7-5
3r + Virginia Ruano Pascual, 6-2 6-3

MARIA KIRILENKO [27,DF]:
1r + Meilen Tu, 6-4 4-6 6-3
2r + Akiko Morigami [S], 6-1 6-1
3r + ANNA CHAKVETADZE [6,EF], 6-7 (6/8) 6-1 6-2

Maria seems to be a confidence-player: when she's confident, she
plays dynamic all-court tennis and can beat lots of players (she's
won two WTA singles-titles: Beijing 2005 and Kolkata 2007). When
she's not confident, she hangs back, doesn't transfer her weight
forwards into the ball, and can't beat anybody.

Maria spent the first half of 2007 in a slump, with a 6-match losing-
streak from March to May, but played very well in front of me to
reach the third round of Birmingham and really push Jelena Jankovic
as hard as Big Maria did in the final. She did well in the US Open
Series, won 9 matches in a row at Kolkata (won) and Seoul (r/u to
Venus Williams), but then her form suddenly evaporated and she lost 5
matches in a row.

But Maria won $75k ITF Dubai in December, and won her first two
matches at Auckland, where Tamira Paszek inflicted a 6-1 6-3 hurting
in the quarter-finals. With her lopsided thrashing of Akiko Morigami
in the second round, and her upset of Anna Chakvetadze in the third
round, Maria comes into her first-ever Grand Slam fourth round quite
possibly in the form of her life.

Daniela leads Maria 3:1 head to head (just as Anna did going into
their third round). But all those matches have had either a third set
and/or a tiebreak, and Maria won the last one: 4-6 6-2 6-1 at Kolkata
2007 en route to the title.

I would put Daniela as a slight favourite going into this match,
because at this stage of her career she has become much more
consistent and mentally strong than when she was Maria's age (21 next
Friday), while Maria is more fragile as she relies heavily on
confidence, and based on what I saw at Birmingham 2007, I can imagine
her struggling to impose the net-game she'd like to use on Daniela,
let alone managing to live with her from the baseline.

Anna Chakvetadze isn't on good form right now, whereas Daniela's
third-round statistics are very impressive.

---------------------------------
3. Fourth-round draw: Bottom half
---------------------------------

* Marta Domachowska [Q] v VENUS WILLIAMS [8] (dawaj Marta!)
* ANA IVANOVIC [4,DF] v Caroline Wozniacki (my loyalty is to Ana)
* DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [9,EF] v MARIA KIRILENKO [27,DF] (mouthwatering
match; my loyalty is to Daniela)
* NADIA PETROVA [14] v AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA [29]

-------------------------------
4. Quarter-final draw: Top half
-------------------------------

* MARIA SHARAPOVA [5,EF] v JUSTINE HENIN [1] (DAVAI MARIA!!)
* JELENA JANKOVIC [3] v SERENA WILLIAMS [7]

------------------
5. Andrew's wishes
------------------

DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [9,EF]:
4r + MARIA KIRILENKO [27,DF]
qf + AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA [29]
sf + ANA IVANOVIC [4,DF]
_f + MARIA SHARAPOVA [5,EF]

------------------
6. Women's Doubles
------------------
6.1 Second-round result (Sunday 20th January)
-----------------------

+ Daniela Hantuchová [EF]/Lindsay Davenport
d. Gabriela Navrátilová/Klára Zakopalová, 6-2 6-1


6.2 Third-round draw
--------------------

* Daniela Hantuchová [EF]/Lindsay Davenport
v Alyona Bondarenko/Kateryna Bondarenko

---------------------------
7. Order of Play for Monday
---------------------------

Vodafone Arena (start 11:00 AEDT = 00:00 GMT)
MD 3r: Rohan Bopanna/Rajeev Ram v Jeff Coetzee [S]/Wesley Moodie
WS 4r: DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [9,EF] v MARIA KIRILENKO [27,DF]
WD 2r: Olga Govortsova/Darya Kustova v Jelena Jankovic/Bethanie Mattek
MS 4r: JUAN CARLOS FERRERO [22] v DAVID FERRER [5]

Full order of play:
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/schedule/

--
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/