Definitely you could tell Daniela wasn't happy about the MTO Kanepi took middle of the 2nd set. Was clearly a momentum stopper. The wta needs to clamp down on this. I personally think that MTO should only be taken between sets, period.

I got the Kvitova match from 4-1 in the second set, I stumbled across it channel surfing in the hotel and Daniela played really well, putting pressure on Kvitova, hitting with power, serving well, showing great touch and she showed a lot of nerve and heart to keep going after the disappointment of not breaking Kvitova at 4-1 in the third and keeping going and holding serve, a great match and performance.

It sucks that she lost today, Kanepi's starting to get on my tits, I didn't see the match so I can't comment on it (cheating bitch and medical timeouts should be banned) but apparently Federer lost as well. I wonder if the fact that she had so much time in Madrid preparing for the first round and then the second round against Kvitova helped Daniela as she was going into both matches fresh and fit but she didn't get much time to prepare against Kanepi. It's a bit like Brisbane where Daniela was there preparing for a while, got her first top 10 win of the season then lost the next match.

Anyway, I'm not going to let the Kanepi loss take the shine off the Kvitova win and I'll enjoy that. It's good points that will boost Daniela's ranking, it takes her closer to 500 wins and the momentum is positive.

On to her favourite city and there are a few players there already. I saw Wozniacki hitting on one of the practice courts when I was at Foro Italico to get the tickets, she had a big posse of her dad and a couple of hitting partners. Schiavone was hitting on the centre court so being a home player has advantages and Marjana Lucic (sp?) was there as well on one of the wee courts. The groundsmen were all giving the place a lick of paint and weeding the flowers beds and all sorts of structures were being put up.

Qualifying draw for Rome is out:

Could be tricky as Voskoboeva beat Puig, Arvidsson in Estoril, and we all know Halep can be a problem...

Plays Saturday not before 4.30pm

1r Voskoboeva
2r Halep or Balducci

Why are you so against Maria? haha. I'm not her biggest fan, and I kinda enjoy Serena's crusade to humiliate her everytime they meet, but sadly Daniela can hardly compete with Maria in achievements or on the court.

I do wish Daniela could make a dent against top players, but it has rarely been the case. I do find Ivanovic's luck annoying. She is almost top ten and always finds a way to find form in important moments.

I'm still annoyed at the wasted chance against Kanepi, maybe she didn't have the energies, but her attitude did not help. I do hope she can gain back her Sanchez-Casal wisdom at some point and make it up in the rankings, but it will take a while.

Why are you so against Maria? haha.
Indian Wells '08...This Is My House! "Nuff said.
Clearly 500 is something for which Sharapova should be lauded. My fear is since she's already one of the 5 most publicized athletes in the world, Daniela will get kicked to the curb as far as the attention she would also deserve if they both do it on the same day or if Daniela gets it like one day after. Amd that would be kind of like the story of her career in a nutshell.
I am grateful, however, that there are 2 qualifying rounds in Rome, rather than the 3 she had to win at Dubai. To get #500 in a qualifier, that would really suck and go completely unnoticed.

Well, she just did it. I swallow hard and congratulate Maria!

The Mutua Madrid Open transitioned from hard court to clay in 2009 and is staged at the Caja Magica. Spaniards have won the title five times since the inaugural ...