MERCURY INSURANCE OPEN PLAYERS

La Costa Hotel and Resort, Carlsbad, California
July 14 - 22, 2012


Player Name Rank Nat.
Bartoli, Marion 8 FRA
Cibulkova, Dominika 16 SVK
Jankovic, Jelena 21 SRB
Petrova, Nadia 29 RUS
Wickmayer, Yanina 35 BEL
McHale, Christina 36 USA
Erakovic, Marina 42 NZL
Cirstea, Sorana 43 ROU
Scheepers, Chanelle 45 RSA
King, Vania 57 USA
Lepchenko, Varvara 63 USA
Daniilidou, Eleni 69 GRE
Stephens, Sloane 70 USA
Gajdosova, Jarmila 72 AUS
Radwanska, Urszula 79 POL
Keothavong, Anne 81 GBR
Chang, Kai-Chen 104 TPE
Watson, Heather 110 GBR
Doi, Misaki 115 JPN
Czink, Melinda 116 HUN
WC- Hantuchova, Daniela 33 SVK
WC-Gibbs, Nicole 403 USA

Women's ranks as of June 4, 2012

Players subject to change

It's a reasonable enough draw. Daniela beat Urszula fairly easily in Pattaya earlier this year so Daniela should be confident although Urszula's had some good results recently.
Cirstea played amazingly against Cibulkova at Stanford and Stephens has been in fairly good form recently so I think they're likely to be tough opponents.

A good run here would do so much for Daniela's confidence especially with the Olympics coming up and it would also give her ranking a boost. So much depends on Daniela's level, how fit she is and especially how well she can serve. If she's able to play like she did at the start of the year then she can do well here. We just have to take it one game at a time.

Order of Play Monday, July 16, 2012

Stadium (from 11.00hrs)
1. Lauren Davis vs. Alexa Glatch
2. Michelle Larcher de Brito vs. Misaki Doi
3. Varvara Lepchenko vs. Nicole Gibbs
4. Chang/Lertcheewakarn vs. Keothavong/Pegula
5. Daniela Hantuchova vs. Urszula Radwanska (NB 19.00hrs)
6. Mattek-Sands/Mirza vs. Chan/Chan

1st set
1-0. Daniela holds to 15
1-1. Radwanska holds to deuce with the 2nd GP
2-1. Daniela holds to 30
2-2. Radwanska holds to 15
2-3. Daniela saves 1 BP but got broken to 30 with df#1 (btw:82% 1st serves so far)
2-4. Daniela saves 1 GP to deuce. Radwanska saves 4 BPs, GP, GP and she holds (Daniela only won 5/20 1st return points)
3-4. df#2, Daniela holds to 30
3-5. Radwanska holds to 0
4-5. Daniela saves 2 BPs (ace#1) to hold to deuce
4-6. Radwanska holds to 30, Daniela saves 1 SP

2nd set
1-0. Daniela holds to 15
2-0. Radwanska got broken to 15
2-1. Daniela has 3 GPs, but got broken. df#3+4
2-2. Radwanska holds to 15
3-2. Daniela saves 2 BPs to deuce, GP, GP, GP, GP, BP, GP, BP, GP, GP and she finally holds....puhh what a game
3-3. Radwanska holds to 15
4-3. Daniela holds to 0! wow what a quick service game
4-4. Radwanska holds to 0 (ace#5!)
5-4. Daniela holds to 0
5-5. Radwanska holds to 0
5-6. Daniela saves 1 BP with ace#2 but got broken to 30... that's it
5-7. Radwanska holds to 30, was just too good on her serve...

This is a real shame and is a similar scoreline to the Hampton loss. Daniela just can't seem to get off to fast start. She's always chasing. I guess it's good to get match practice but the injury before the clay season has ruined her year. You just feel that if Daniela can just get one decent result or a big win it would help so much as atm she's getting nothing back for all her hard work. A few matches in doubles here would be nice but hopefully Daniela can now go to Olympics and just enjoy the whole experience. There's no way she's going to get an easy draw there so she may as well relax and have fun out there.

The frustration is that this kinda draw she would have raced through back in February...it just seems that she's half a step slower since the injury which is allowing lower ranked players to dictate.

This is so depressing and upsetting. I feel so bad for Daniela. Judging by the stats, Urszula's served very well and she'd had some good recent results so it seems like she played well and won the match rather than Daniela losing it because she played badly although it's not that much of a consolation. Eddy made a very good point when he said that this is similar to Daniela's previous losses since her comeback and that a win in one of these close matches would give Daniela a big boost of confidence.
Daniela's service stats were okay, but she gave up DFs at crucial times and it didn't help that URzsula served really well.

I'm sick of Daniela losing to Radwanskas here. I hope Urszula's goes on a good run here which would make this a little easier to take.

''I just went for too many shots, too much to the line,'' said the 32nd-ranked Hantuchova, who was given a wild-card entry into the event. ''She did well to keep the ball in play. I think sometimes I went for too much instead of making her play a little bit more.''


"I knew what to expect from her. I know her game. So I was prepared for this match," Radwanska said afterwards. "I just believed in myself. In February when I played her I wasn't that well prepared, maybe a little bit scared, but this time I believed I could do it and played pretty well, in every area of my game.

"The last couple of weeks I've been playing very well. After every match I've been getting more experience and more confidence. Now I believe I can beat even players from the Top 20, and that was one of the keys for me today."


I suppose the only positive is that Daniela doesn't really have that many points to defend for the rest of the year. She's got the quarters of Cincinnati to defend but she doesn't have really have any thing else to defend and she's got nothing to defend at the US Open although the way things are going I'm not sure she'll be seeded for it. It took Daniela a long time to get over her foot injury in 2008 so patience will be needed. As long as Daniela's fit and healthy she'll start playing well again and getting wins. Hopefully she can have a good run in the doubles and get some match practice and confidence there.

Thanks very much for the live scores, patti.

Let's face it, guys. Until (if ever) Daniela's serve is a weapon again, rather than the cross between a dirigible and a hanging curveball that it is these days, we're going to see this kind of result over and over. (I well recall the Buy a New Arm comment...she might never get it back. We may never fully appreciate how gutsy she was and how much pain she endured in the Pattaya final and the Fed Cup clincher.) And shudder to think what happens if she draws people like Serena, Vika or Lisicki.
A while back I put on a DVR of Daniela's win against Ivanovic in Britain last June. After 2 points on her serve, I couldn't bear to watch anymore and switched it off. She was firing bombs and bullets. Sorrowful, the difference between Dani 13 months ago and now. Clearly, her Olympic dream can only be acheived in doubles. We'll see how far she and Dominika can go this week. Right now, nothing good seems realistic. I have worked in radio play-by-play of high school sports here in upstate New York for almost 30 years. My broadcast partner likes to say "Stranger things have happened." Us long-time Dani fans know that her picture would fit very nicely by that phrase. Would a neutral observer think right now that Daniela has any chance to medal in London? No. But we have seen her look down and out more than once, and then a stranger thing has happened. I'm not giving up hope. BTW, I see that mixed doubles has never been an Olympic event before. Should Daniela draw into that, she can be the first person ever to achieve the Golden Slam in mixed. No matter what her critics may say, that would be a nice legacy for her to leave after she retires. Let's Go, Daniela!