Daniela's eighth:

49. PATTY SCHNYDER [12] v Yuliana Fedak
51. Stéphanie Foretz v qualifier
53. Meghann Shaughnessy v Abigail Spears
55. L'udmila Cervanová v TATIANA GOLOVIN [20]

57. DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [26] v Akiko Morigami
59. Barbara Schett v Tiffany Welford [WC]
61. Anna Chakvetadze v Arantxa Parra Santonja
63. Alyona Bondarenko v ELENA DEMENTIEVA [6]

Daniela starts against a Selesian player, though I must admit I was
bored stiff both times I watched Akiko Morigami play. Like Monica
Seles, Morigami takes the ball early, with two hands on both
sides... but while the ball comes off Monica's racket like a bullet,
it comes off Morigami's like a wounded canary, and this often
frustrates her opponents.

Morigami has made a bad start to 2005, losing to #176 Shahar Peer in
the first round of Auckland. Daniela should handle her easily, as in
6-3 6-1. Daniela beat her 7-5 6-2 in their only previous meeting -
Amelia Island 2003.

Barbara Schett is retiring from professional tennis after the
Australian Open, so I wish her a nice send-off against the class act
that is Daniela. Babsi had a poor year in 2004, and is currently
ranked #92. Daniela owns Babsi 6-0 in their head-to-head, and has
dropped only two sets in those matches.

Daniela's chances of reaching her first Grand Slam fourth round
since the Australian Open 2003 (where she reached the quarter-
finals) look remote if she has to play Elena Dementieva, who beat
Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams to win the Watson's Water
Challenge exhibition-tournament in Hong Kong last week.

Daniela did beat Dementieva twice in 2002, but Dementieva leads 5-2
overall and thrashed Daniela 6-0 6-1 in their last meeting at Amelia
Island 2003. On the other hand, Dementieva has just pulled out of
the semi-finals of Sydney with heat-illness.

Even if Daniela does make it to the fourth round, her likely
opponent would be Patty Schnyder who broke her heart three times
last year, most notably at both the Olympics and the US Open, where
Daniela blew a thousand and one chances to win.

My dream fourth round would, of course, be a mouthwatering match
between Daniela and the gorgeous Tatiana Golovin - this time without
Daniela pulling out with breathing difficulties like at Paris and
Birmingham last year!


Full Australian Open draw:
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/draws/ws/

My full analysis of the draw:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeldani/message/1696

Finally, some nice photos from Sydney of various players:
http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.php?t=146293
http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.php?t=146419

--
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/