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US OPEN (Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, Decoturf, Grand Slam)
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Daniela has her career Grand Slam in mixed doubles!
1. Wimbledon 2001 (with Leos Friedl)
2. Australian Open 2002 (with Kevin Ullyett)
3. French Open 2005 (with Fabrice Santoro)
4. US Open 2005 (with Mahesh Bhupathi)

What makes Daniela such a great mixed-doubles player is that she can
hold serve reliably with the men, whilst attacking the other woman's
serve. So she can win mixed doubles with any man who can hold serve
reliably - remember also that she won the Hopman Cup mixed-team
competition with Dominik Hrbatý in January 2005.

Photos:
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=hantuchova
http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.php?t=188795&page=4
Search Getty Images for "hantuchova"

Post-final press-conference (video only):
http://makeashorterlink.com/?O383133CB

-------------------
Mixed Doubles Final
-------------------

+ Daniela Hantuchová/Mahesh Bhupathi d.
Katarina Srebotnik/Nenad Zimonjic, 6-4 6-2

The match started at 13:50 EDT in a sparsely-packed Arthur Ashe
stadium. I followed live scores at www.usopen.org; here are my
comments as I wrote them at the time:

First Set
---------
HANTUCHO/BHUPATHI _* * *@* * 6
SREBOTNI/ZIMONJIC * * *___*_ 4

I am assuming that the men are serving first.

Zimonjic serving 0-0: 0/15, 15/15, 40/15, 40/30, held.
Bhupathi serving 0-1: held to love.
Srebotnik serving 1-1: 0/15, 15/15, 15/30, 40/30, held.

In mixed doubles you always look to attack the woman's serve, so
that was an opportunity missed for Daniela and Mahesh.

Daniela serving 1-2: 40/0, 40/30, held.
Zimonjic serving 2-2: 30/0 -> 30/30, 40/30, held.
Bhupathi serving 2-3: 30/0 -> 30/30, 40/30, held.
Srebotnik serving 3-3: 30/0 -> 30/30, 30/40 (BP), broken.

Excellent! Everything is going as planned.

Daniela serving 4-3: held to love.
Zimonjic serving to stay in the first set at 3-5: 15/0, 15/15,
40/15, held.
Bhupathi serving for the first set at 5-4: 15/0, 15/15,
40/15 (2 SPs), Daniela and Mahesh won the first set 6-4 at 14:23.


Second Set
----------
HANTUCHO/BHUPATHI @* * *@* 6
SREBOTNI/ZIMONJIC __* *___ 2

I am assuming that the men are serving first.

Zimonjic serving 0-0: 0/30 -> 30/30, 30/40 (BP), broken.

A break of the man's serve is clearly a bigger blow than a break of
the woman's. Daniela and Mahesh are well on the way to a straight-
sets victory now! :-)

Bhupathi serving 1-0: held to love.
Srebotnik serving 0-2: 30/0, 30/15, 40/15, held.
Daniela serving 2-1: 0/15, 30/15, 30/30, 40/30, held.
Zimonjic serving 1-3: 40/0 -> 40/40, ad Z, held.
Bhupathi serving 3-2: 30/0, 30/15, 40/15, held.
Srebotnik serving 2-4: broken to love.

A double break should be an unassailable lead in doubles, where the
pressure is much less than in singles because you have a partner.
And Daniela has the honour of serving for the title! :-)

Daniela serving for the title at 5-2: 0/40 (3 BPs) -> 40/40, ad D
(championship-point), Daniela and Mahesh won 6-4 6-2 at 14:52.


Statistics
----------

Daniela and Mahesh won 78% of points when they got their first
serves in, and 76% on second serve. Srebotnik/Zimonjic were much
worse at 63% and 41%. Srebotnik/Zimonjic served 5 aces and 3 double
faults, while Daniela and Mahesh served two of each.

Daniela and Mahesh had a W:UE ratio of 5:3, while Srebotnik/Zimonjic
were apparently much better at 11:2. Obviously from these
statistics, the match was full of error-forcing play.

Daniela and Mahesh had three break-points and converted them all;
Srebotnik/Zimonjic also had 3 BPs, but these were the ones at 0/40
when Daniela served out the match. :-)

Daniela and Mahesh won 60-40 in points.


Quotes from Daniela
-------------------

"It feels great. This was the last one I was missing and finally I
got it, thanks to an unbelievable partner on my side. I'm so happy
right now.

"This was the last one I was missing, so thankfully I've got it now
and with such a great partner. I feel fantastic. It's something
really special. It means a lot to me, especially having a partner
like Mahesh, it makes it even more special.

"I really enjoyed every minute of it. I mean, I've learned so much
in the last week, just the way to play a real, real doubles. It was
a great experience for me, and we had a lot of fun.

"Now I guess I can concentrate on my singles career."


Quotes from Mahesh
------------------

"I played against her a couple of times in mixed and think I've lost
every time. So I've been trying to play with her for a long time,
but unfortunately, it never worked out.

"We had a lot of fun. We saved a match-point in the first round, and
after that she told me we're probably going to win it now.

"Our first match together we were down match-point in the super
tiebreaker. The fact that we fought hard and came out of that, we
knew we were a good team. Winning matches like that is what makes it
special. We had a very tough draw.

"Since then I think we raised our level. We had a very touch draw,
we played Jonas [Björkman] and [Lisa] Raymond in the second round
and we've got better with every match. We kept our level and if they
played better they would beat us, but I don't think anyone was up to
the task."

--
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/