Nice, easy routine win.
Daniela and Ai were superior in pretty much every aspect: better serving, better volleying and better groundstrokes. Vesnina and Szavay had chances but Daniela & Ai snuffed out the threat or Vesnina & Szavay made an error. I always felt that Daniela & Ai always had an extra gear to go into whenever they were threatened.

Playing doubles with Ai is great for Daniela as she has fun and enjoys playing tennis, plus she's been getting good wins and that builds her confidence which should carry over to singles. To me this is similar to 2006 when Daniela had that crushing loss to Li Na and her singles form had a downturn but she was getting good performances and results in doubles which rebuilt her confidence and form and that translated into good singles results by the indoor season which she maintained until she got derailed by illness and injury last year.

All's well that ends well.

Sugi's lobs were rock solid and deep. It is that kind of depth that one does find every day.

Daniela's volleys were terrific. She brought a singles cross-court game to the doubles allies. Whew!

Now, on the other side, it looked like they just didn't care. They recieve no honors. It was a cowards came they played. To the end.

Jokes? I didn't see many jokes. Could they have lost? Opponents are opponents.


Easiness. hmm. Notice the crowd, they didn't show up? Think about that for a moment. That could be a sign for things to come. I won't read into it -- bless your heart. A few of them try to get some attention for themselves.


The instictive game Hantuchova-Sugiyama played showed me a lot. They belong in the GS's.

It has been mentioned that they brought today a lot of . . . well fairweather has it's friends -- I'm all for someone who knows when they have a good thing. The match didn't bleed-from-the-eyes control, but there are two winners in the circle. So don't count your chickens before they hatch (we are just marking her down), but all in all Hantuchova-Sugiyama seems to be a marriage to last a lifetime. For truth has no mericnaries. Let's hope they play like this forever and ever. The sugar is so sweet. Yes it is.

They were a bad pair. It was obvious. They were taken out and that is the way it should be. It was only a doubles match. There was no reason for doing what they did.

I feel kind of sick to my stomach now. Maybe one of them will kiss a frog.

I guess

Maybe I'm not trying to find fault. That is good/bad? You could take the point from them for trying, right?

They had game -- it's no myth! Slap that up against a real player, OK, you've met your match.



Watched the Cornet match. I watched last years AO. Are you nervous? I've seen and heard lots of things. We have the past, the present of someones tennis career.

People talk about her form. The future. Ect.


Now, I could shed light on this. I could say a lot of things about what I observe. Things that maybe you or I don't want to be true. We can all look back. Hindight 20/20. And then I could tell you that never a mistake was made. Maybe it would help, maybe they wouldn't. Fans who cheer for win or for lose. A fine young mess.


Looks to me like it feels good. It feels right. That's the impression that I get.

The match was hers to have. We could disagree about this. What formally lost the match, however, was the lack of desire to win.

Tell me it looks wrong. OK. That's your opinion of how it should be. I've got mine, you have yours. Pleased to meet you -- this one is hers.

She didn't come through the ranks like this. Not a single player has.

This is the way that it is. Everything is in place here.

We lost hope a long time ago.


Really, what I want to say is . . . well . . . it is getting late.

I can't watch the match again because I haven't recorded it. There were doubts from the start as to whether or not she could win this match. OK, it is heresay. And I did not really believe it.

I'm not one to reserve my comments either. maybe you'll find this is too good for you some day

OK so you talk about her "present form". Then "Top ten wins". I trust that she could continue on in her "present form" for quite some time.

The sense that I got watching the last match was that there was something in her that said "No, I won't/can't win this". That scares me. I don't want to believe that she has withered inside.

She gets far enough to think there is nothing wrong. "Here I am and I'm doing everything right." There are fans who think it is all just fine. It is part of the sport. How many of them care if she wins or loses this really? You see players throw their rackets on the ground. She doesn't do that. But how many people want to see her do that? OK she cares about the racket but what is she willing to throw on the ground?

Nervous? I watch last years AO matches. I can see she was nervous. Now she seems not to care. Though she has improved! That tells me she is willing to accept this. She's gone this long. Wow. It suprises me. OK NO IT DOESN'T. Tada!


Is the question "What is keeping her from changing her mind?". There is no answer.

Seems to me the Question should be "Why doesn't she start changing her mind?" There are 1000 answers to this.

wow


We have been posting this stuff for really long time. Did you realize that?

I'm not really sure why you ask me if I want to go to the AO. I mean of course I do. Are you really serious?

Let's get together off the forum OK. I want to continue with this but other people are going to start making noise about it.

I'm not really sure you're entirely with me as it is. It's OK. Just contact me otherwise and we can work things out from there.

DON'T CONTINUE THIS IN THE PUBLIC FORUM

OK, end of discussion.

i got back from my few weeks in Melbourne yesterday, fair to say that most people are shocked with the results in the women's draw this year, its a total contrast to what has happened in the men's draw!

her first round match against Dellaqua was frustrating and exciting, i was kinda torn between who to support because obviously i want to see the aussies do well but i really wanted to see Daniela advance deep in the tournament. Surprisingly the crowd wasnt as vocal as i thought, and i guess you've said everything on the match, but i thought it was excellent experience against the home player in RLA and despite the errors from both players it was an exciting match.

her second round match against Johansson was up and down, although Mathilde played very well i thought. Daniela just lacked the consistency over the course of the match, hence why it went to 3 sets, and the crowd was very much behind her also.

her 3rd round match against Cornet wasn't that disappointing, she played fairly well, especially in that first set but was just beaten by a player who was on fire that day. Cornet made next to no errors and made Daniela work SO hard to even get a chance at winning a point. The best news is that the injury timeout wasnt as serious as it seemed at the time!

I saw their first 2 doubles matches and they did it quite easily and they had a lot of fun, i really think Daniela and Ai have a good chance to go deep into this doubles draw with the way they're playing!

Btw go Jelena Dokic, she has been the story of the week and it'd be great to see her dream run continue against Safina on tuesday lol.
and for anyone who hasnt been to Melbourne before i highly recommend, ive gone the last 2 years and theyve both been fantastic!

Hantuyama play Black / Huber tonight (UK time)..
1st on MCA (11:00 local time)