From The Guardian (British newspaper), Thursday 24th June 2004:
>>>
Hantuchová regains her sparkle with recall of coach

The Slovakian was a mess last year; now she is smiling and winning

Richard Jago

Daniela Hantuchová is cheerful and, after one impressive win and a
walk-over against the injured Elena Bovina, is the only player in
the third round of Wimbledon.

The Slovakian deserves her good fortune because there could be no
greater contrast with last year, when her shock second-round defeat
by Shinobu Asagoe contained some of the most harrowing scenes
witnessed at Wimbledon. Hantuchová was so overcome with grief and
confusion that she stood by the backstop to hide her tears, walked
in circles to regain a half-adequate composure and looked
emotionally unfit to continue. In most jobs she would have been
allowed to go home.

But in the last two weeks the talented 21-year-old has begun again
to look what she was - a sparkly-eyed, sinewy-strong competitor
playing to a top-10 standard and capable of pushing into the top
five.

Overseeing this uplifting recovery has been Nigel Sears, the British
coach she sacked last year but telephoned in March asking for him
back after a six-month interlude. It landed Sears with the tough
task of generating a sense of well-being while persuading her to
change what was in her head. He had to rebuild her confidence in her
ability while altering the immature shot selection brought on by her
emotional state.

"She had been stressing out over everything and panicking in tight
situations," Sears said. "She had got into a nasty spiral and it was
difficult to deal with everything. She needed to get her head round
what she was going to do and reprioritise. I needed to feel she was
going to restart with a clean sheet and a full head.

"I am very happy she seems to be more like her old self. She's at
full weight, a lot of power has returned and she's taking the ball
on again."

Few know for sure what caused the anorexic look. There were whispers
of a failed love affair and gossip that Daniela now travels without
her mother Marianna, once a regular companion. Sears will not get
into any of that but suggests there has been a substantial shift of
ambience.

"She's growing up and has reminded herself that playing tennis is a
privilege and she loves to do what she does," he says. "That can get
lost in all the stress, anxiety and pressure."

Hantuchová agrees. "I needed to get tougher, not only in my tennis
but in things off the court, and I learned a lot. It might sound
crazy but I appreciate what I had to go through," she said.

She has a distance to go to reverse the fall from five to 50 in the
rankings in little more than a year but she is up to 38 and Sears
feels she can make it. "Everything's heading in the right direction
and she's too good to be where she is," he said. "Two things are
still missing: confidence and a [decent] ranking. She needs to feel
accomplished and secure enough to take risks."

Sears, too, has had to take risks. Hantuchová left him to work with
Harold Solomon, a bigger-name American coach who, it turned out, did
not empathise with her as well as the man from Sussex. Second time
round the problems are dauntingly unique. One thing helped convince
Sears it was worth another try: Hantuchová's attitude.

"I felt I needed to change something to help me and my game," she
said. "But then I realised what I had to change is myself." That is
simple and perhaps obvious but uncommon. Which is why they sound
like the words of a winner.
<<<