Daniela could have been forgiven for thinking she was playing at
Moscow this week, as she played three Russians at the Tokyo Pan
Pacific Open.

In the first round, she saw off the sexy Alina Jidkova 6-1 6-4, just
as she had done in the first round of the French Open 2003 (2-6 6-0
6-1), when Jidkova was ranked #104. Now Jidkova is a much-improved
player at #54, so Daniela's easy scoreline is a very positive sign.


In a mouthwatering second-round encounter, Daniela fought back to
score a 4-6 6-0 6-2 victory over 18-year-old Maria Kirilenko, one of
the top pretenders to my fanship in the future (along with Tatiana
Golovin and Karolina Šprem).

I saw Makiri play in person at Birmingham last year. I was
captivated by her aggressive all-court play as she took a 3-0 lead
over Roberta Vinci... but sadly she went off the boil and lost 6-4 6-
3. I also watched her win the doubles title with Maria Sharapova
(the Super Maria Sisters).

Little Maria clearly has a tremendous amount of innate talent (as
well as being very cute), but if she's so brilliant, she gotta be
good first.

So I'm pleased that Little Maria did herself reasonable justice
against Daniela. I hope it's a sign that she's on the rise after the
disappointing run of form (due to a shoulder-injury) she has
suffered since pushing Serena Williams to 6-4 in the third at the
French Open 2004. Onwards and upwards!


In the quarter-finals, Daniela was edged out by US Open champion
Svetlana Kuznetsova, 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/4). Daniela fought back from 2-
5 in the first set and 0-3 in the second.

It's an encouraging sign of Daniela's form that she achieved such a
close score against the world #6, but it's also yet another example
of Daniela's inability to win tight matches (Daniela was three
points shy of a straight-sets victory over Kuznetsova in the
Eastbourne 2004 final when she served for the championship).

--
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/