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US OPEN (Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, Decoturf, Grand Slam)
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Photos:
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=hantuchova

Video highlights:
http://www.wtaworld.com/showpost.php?p=6097852 (selected points)
http://www.wtaworld.com/showpost.php?p=6100477 (final game)

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Second round
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+ DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [20] d. María Emilia Salerni [Q], 6-1 6-0

Daniela has never in her career won 6-0 6-0 or 6-1 6-0 before (she
beat Henrieta Nagyová 6-0 6-1 in 2r Rome 2001), and to match the 6-1
6-0 scoreline that Maria Sharapova had won by earlier in the day...
wow! (Maria lost 25 points, Daniela just 21.)

It was an extremely windy day at the US Open - up to 36mph (the
remnants of Hurricane Katrina). Wind is often an equaliser in
tennis, so it's surprising that the top seeds won their matches so
easily in this extreme wind.


The match started at 16:32 EDT, and I followed live scores at
www.usopen.org; here are my comments as I wrote them at the time
(not that I have many comments, with the match being so simple):

First Set
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HANTUCH *@* *@* 6
SALERNI ___*___ 1

Daniela serving 0-0: 15/0, 15/15, 40/15, held.
Salerni serving 0-1: broken to love.
Daniela serving 2-0: 40/0, 40/15, held.

Daniela won 10 points in a row from 0-0 (15/15) to 2-0 (40/0).

Salerni serving 0-3: 15/0, 15/30, 30/30, 30/40 (BP), 40/40, ad S,
held.
Daniela serving 3-1: 30/0, 30/15, 40/15, held.
Salerni serving 1-4: 15/0, 15/40 (2 BPs), 30/40, broken.
Daniela serving for the first set at 5-1: 0/15, 40/15 (2 SPs),
Daniela won the first set 6-1 at 16:59.


Second Set
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HANTUCH @*@*@
SALERNI _____

Salerni serving 0-0: 0/15, 30/15, 30/30, 30/40, broken.
Daniela serving 1-0: 40/0, 40/15, held.
Salerni serving 0-2: 0/40 (3 BPs) -> 40/40, ad D (BP #4), broken.

That was Salerni's big chance to get into the match. For a moment
there, it looked like Daniela had got back into her bad old
opportunity-squandering ways, but it would take a miracle for
Salerni to shatter Daniela's confidence in this match now.

Daniela serving 3-0: 30/0, 30/15, 40/15, held.
Salerni serving 0-4: 15/0, 15/40 (2 BPs), broken.
Daniela serving for the match at 5-0: 0/30 -> 40/30 (MP),
Daniela won 6-1 6-0 at 17:24 (52 minutes).


Statistics
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Daniela had an impressive W:UE ratio of 14:8, while Salerni had a
woeful 3:23.

Daniela got 58% of first serves in (Salerni 59%), winning 90% of the
points when she did so (Salerni 27%) and 60% on her second serve
(Salerni 41%). In the first set, Salerni was winning just 20% of
points when she got her first serve in, and 63% on second serve -
she would have been better off just taking two second serves! ;-)

Daniela served 5 aces and one double fault (Salerni no aces and 3
DFs), and served faster than Salerni (fastest 109 - 105mph, average
first serve 101 - 97 mph, second serve 82 - 76mph).

Daniela broke 5 times from 10 break-points, without having to face a
single break-point against her own serve.

Daniela won 52-21 in points, dropping 11 points in the first set and
just 10 in the second.

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Third-round opponent
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VENUS WILLIAMS [10]:
1r + Rika Fujiwara, 6-3 6-1
2r + Maria Kirilenko, 6-1 6-3

Williams has dropped three more games than Daniela in getting to the
third round. It's a good sign that Daniela has won through so
easily - having to struggle through tough matches has not helped
Daniela in the past when she's had to play a Williams sister in the
next round.

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Mixed Doubles: First-round draw
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* Daniela Hantuchová/Mahesh Bhupathi v Sun,Tiantian/Simon Aspelin

--
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/