I went to Melbourne Park yesterday and saw the 2nd set of Daniela's
match against Morigami. It was packed but fortunately an usher
somehow managed to find me a seat in the 2nd row from the court so I
had a pretty good view.

Firstly Daniela was looking fit like she did pre-2003. Morigami is a
small but steady player and managed to break Daniela and gain some
momentum in the second set mostly due to Daniela's unforced errors.
I noticed that most of Daniela's groundstrokes are pretty flat and
she doesn't get much clearance so many of her shots went into the net.

Apart from reducing unforced errors Daniela's game would benefit from
better movement especially lateral movement. She is a tall girl of
course, but she could still improve in this area especially compared
to Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova who I also watched. Those two
players are tall but they are more agile because they bend their
knees and keep their center of gravity low whereas Daniela stands a
little too upright.

Mandrake