Apparently Daniela had a wrist injury to contend with last year.


Daniela Hantuchova shook off a torrid 2014 with a demolition of second seed Sara Errani in the Auckland Classic first round.

Hantuchova saw her world ranking plummet to 62 in 2014, losing in the first round of 12 of her 24 tournaments, though she had wrist injury issues to contend with.

She arrived in New Zealand on the back of four straight first round defeats but she looked in superb form against the Italian clay court specialist Errani winning 6-3 6-2 in 75 minutes.



Daniela Hantuchova shook off a torrid 2014 that saw her year-end ranking drop to its lowest point since 2002 with a demolition of second seed Sara Errani in the Auckland Classic first round on Monday.

The towering Hantuchova thundered powerful groundstrokes past the much shorter Italian, who had been battling a rib injury before the tournament, to clinch a 6-3, 6-2 victory in 75 minutes.

The 31-year-old Slovakian was bothered by a troubling wrist injury in 2014 but also lost in the first round at 12 of her 24 tournaments, including the last four of the year.

Thank you for the highlights, Chungwit. Feeling jolts of electricity running through me watching that! Seeing Dani play so powerfully, OMG!

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Daniela Hantuchova and Sloane Stephens, who both took on new coaches during the off-season, kicked off their years in style with dominant victories in the first round of the ASB Classic on Monday.

Hantuchova is now working with Carlos Rodriguez, who previously coached Grand Slam champions Justine Henin and Li Na. Her first match under him ended in a 6-3, 6-2 win over No.2 seed Sara Errani.

"After the pre-season, I couldn't wait to be on court to see where my game was," Hantuchova said. "I was nicely surprised. It seemed like everything worked out.

"Sara is a great fighter and a great player. To have a draw like that in the first round is not easy. I knew I had to be extremely focused for every point because she is very good at turning matches around. I felt like I was moving well and tactically playing the way that I worked on with Carlos."

Hantuchova is competing in Auckland for the first time since 2007.

"I'm so pleased to be back," Hantuchova said. "There are a lot of changes. I'm pleasantly surprised by the facilities. The gym is fantastic. I've gotten a chance to travel around and went to Waiheke the other day. It's been a lot of fun."

Schiavone lost to Radwanska, so Daniela won't have to go up against her doubles partner. Of course, she now faces someone who's on a roll through qualifying and today, but that's nothing new.
Czechmates win, 6-4 6-4. Daniela and Schiavone put up quite a fight, even led 3-0 in the second. But in each set, they lost a deciding point at 4-4, and that's why their opponents are as good as they are. Not the worst thing if we want Dani to make a deep run here.

Daniela's the second match on Grandstand, not before 1:30 pm.

I am so happy she seems so motivated!

Do we like her chances against Radwanska's little sister? If she plays like R1, she should cruise, but yeah, Daniela is not know for carrying her form from match to match. New year new patterns?

Lost 1-6 in the 3rd I didn't see the match but looks like she gradually played worse as the match continued after a fantastic start whereas Radwanska played consistently. Sucks big time but at least she won a round. I hope she enters Hobart...