--- In danielahantuchova@yahoogroups.com, tenms1 <no_reply@y...>
wrote:
>
> It's going to be very tough...Elena is a clear favorite, she is
No.6
> in the world, Daniela No. 31. Daniela is two years younger, 8
kilos
> lighter and 1cm taller. They met seven times and score is 5:2 for
> teh Russian - Elena won their first three matches, Dani next two
(on
> hard and carpet) and Elena won their last two matches - both
> quarterfinals - on carpet and clay. Their last match was in 2003
in
> Amelia Island on clay and Elena won 6:0, 6:1 - it was probably the
> most humiliating defeat of Daniela in her career. But it's a long
> time ago and so many things have happened since then.
> Daniela played definitely her best match of the year in the
> previous match against Barbara Schett - unfortunately, she is not
> capable of playing such high level tennis constantly. It would be
> great if she could repeat such a performance against Elena, but
even
> in that case, Elena is not Barbara and I don't think Elena would
> lose all those deuce games as Barbara did - I would rather expect
> opposite to happen. I guess there is always a chance to beat your
> opponent. The main difference between them is in physical
condition -
> Elena has an unbelievable energy and she is one of the best on
the
> tour in this matter - she will not run out of steam, even if not
> 100% fit. Her real weakeness is her serve, especially second serve
> and I think here is the chance for Daniela - to attack it with
> minimal amount of unforced errors. Otherwise, the match will last
> less than an hour and the winner will be another Russian player.
> Daniela for sure knows what to play and she knows that everybody
is
> beatable...Daniela GO GO GO !!! Pome!!!

I have just watched this match, I must say Daniela has a lot of
chances to really win this match, she was 4:2 ahead in the first
set and a few point to streched her lead to 5:2. In the 2nd set
Danila was behind 4:5 with Elena serving for the match she manage
to win 3 game in a row to pull even at 1 set all. The final set
Elena jump to a 4:1 lead with 2 breaks of serve, Daniela managed
to pull one back and held her serve for 4:3 and then had a great
chance to break and pull the match even but failed on a down the
line forehand which caught the tape. It was a very close match
that could have going for a long time and Daniela could have won it.
My overall impression of Daniela's play is that although she is
going for her shot quite a lot more than Elena, she lacks consistancy
on her ground stroke in all she committed no less than 78 unforced
errors which doubled Elena's number of unforced errors. She needs
more net clearance and possibly more top spin on her shot And to me
some of her shot selection is really questionable, she gave cheap
points away to Elena with bad drop volleys and in several occassions
she would play some low percentage drop shots in middle of a rally.
For Daniela to improve she needs to learn how to play percentage
tennis and learn to know when to execute a shot at a certain time.
The gap between Daniela's ability and that of a top 10 player is not
huge and in fact I think she is on her way up again but for her to
regain her rightful place in the ranking, these are the little thing
she needs to improve. namely her shot selection, a big more spin and
clearance on her ground shots and also her physical condition which
I know it is continue to improve. I still regard Dani as potentially
better player than Elena but it will be a shame to waste that talent.