Dates: 19 - 31 January, 2015
Venue: Melbourne, Australia
Tier: Grand Slam
Prize Money: $15,561,973
Surface: Hard/Outdoors
Tournament Director: Craig Tiley

Official Website: www.ausopen.com


Last Appearance: 2014 3rd round. Lost to Serena Williams 6-3 6-3

Singles:
1R: Daniela Hantuchova bt Zheng Saisai (CHN) 6-4 6-4
2R: [24] Garbine Muguruza (ESP) bt Daniela Hantuchova 6-1 1-6 6-0

Doubles:
1R: Daniela Hantuchova/Karin Knapp bt Chuang Chia-Jung/Zhang Shuai 6-3 6-3
2R: [4] Flavia Pennetta/Martina Hingis bt Daniela Hantuchova/Karin Knapp 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2

Daniela's unseeded here so hopefully she can get a decent draw and go on a run. She got to the third round last year so if she could match that that would be wonderful. We'll see who she gets and how she does.

It's a reasonable enough draw. Daniela's got a winnable first round match as a brief check of Zheng bio shows that she's had more success in doubles so far in her career although she is only 20. I'd like Daniela to get a decent court for it as she plays better on the bigger courts and an outside court would level things up a bit and Daniela went out in the first round two years ago on a tiny outside court so a decent court would be nice. Daniela has to win her first round match and take things from there.

One other thing, guys. In the past I have mentioned how I began to root for Daniela when she beat Serena in Melbourne when my wife was in hospital, and every so often about how she keeps having to be hospitalized and Dani will do something to cheer me. Late last year, my wife spent 3 months in hospital and then in a physical rehab center. I spend a lot of time with her each day. I want you guys to know that some of that time is passed reading your posts and writing my own. That is more of a help to me than I can possibly express. I have never seen any of your faces and will most likely never meet you in person, but through the Forum I consider you all to be good friends. We don't always agree, and I'm very weird on here often, but we share the common bond of loving and supporting Daniela, and I enjoy every minute of it. I don't want to put the jinx on her, but since she came back home before Christmas my wife has improved and is showing a number of very promising signs. She even said she'd like to have a vacation in Cincinnati and see Dani play again. Guys, my gratitude to you is boundless. Hopefully, Daniela will allow us to keep this going for a long time to come.

I'm happy to hear that you wife is feeling better, Alex.

I really enjoy the forum and I like the people on here so it's always good to be involved here supporting Daniela.

Daniela isn't playing until Tuesday. The thing about Zheng is that she's only been on tour for short time so we don't know much about her, how good she is or what she's capable of. She's ranked below Daniela. If she'd been around for years we'd know roughly what she's capable of but because she's new so is a relatively unknown quantity. Daniela will have a huge advantage in experience but she won't know much about Zheng's style and qualities whereas Zheng will know about Daniela. Hopefully Daniela's fit and prepared and able to play her best tennis.

Daniela was practising with Bouchard today.

Order of play for Tuesday.

It's not a televised court, is it?

The good thing is that Daniela knows when she starting and she won't be waiting around. A few times she's been ready to gone on court with a men's match seemingly over with someone two sets up only for it to go five sets. She's got a reasonably decent court. Daniela's going to practice on it from 9 - 9:30 then Zheng's going on till 10 so at least Daniela will have had a hit on it and a chance to get used to the court.

I just had a check at Zheng's results and she beat Diyas in Shenzhen in the first week of the season and she also beat Jankovic in Tianjin late last year, so she's beaten good players recently although all of her best results have come in China. Zheng's got to be respected and Daniela has to play good tennis from the start. The first set will be so important as in so many of Daniela's matches over the past year whoever's won the first set has won the match although she came from a set down to beat Oprandi at the US Open.