Typical Dani im afraid,
she lost 2 game points and eventually lost
the game, the set and the match.
i dont know what to think, is it about stamina
( due to her recent injury )
or is it about wrong psychology during the game ??
Or perhaps both of them ??

crap 1st,fought back strongly in 2nd
missed two sp's and two bp's at 15-40.devastating
her serve is out of rythm(will find it but takes time),but is getting more convisingly
into matches,i think.i am expecting resurgence in the european indoors.

ORDER OF PLAY - WEDNESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2008

COURT 2, 13:00

HANTUCHOVA/SZAVAY v MORITA/NAKAMURA
DUSHEVINA/UHLIROVA v DELLACQUA/SCHIAVONE [3]

This is another disappointing result. Daniela played badly in the first set, especially on serve, but she improved in the second set and should have won it as she had set points and then BPs to take it into the tiebreak. I don't know if Schiavone played those points well, in which case credit to her, or if Daniela played them badly in which case it really is a missed opportunity and a concern. Apart from Radwanska at the Olympics, Schiavone's generally beaten average players but has lost to good players or players in form. This match shows Daniela's level of play isn't good right now.

One positive is that Daniela kept fighting and she'll always have is her desire and fighting spirit. She has to work on things, especially her serve, but she is a very hard worker and she'll put in the work in practice to rectify things and she has a good team to help her. She's not playing well right now, but with the talent she has and with the desire she has, she should start to play better and turn her results around and start winning.

Hopefully Daniela can put in a decent run in doubles because she really needs match practice and getting back into the winning habit. I think we should just look for Daniela to improve her performances for the rest of the year and hopefully she can get a decent run or two.

Part of my thinks she needs time but I also think that by now she should be getting some better results (or at least losing by better scorelines). If this was another player I think they would have bounced back by now, or be getting better results than Daniela is at present. Maybe its because her game is based on natural timing and she just hasn't got it back yet. I'm not sure why her serve has gone so downhill but if she doesn't improve it soon she will never win matches. The WTA Tour is full of hard-hitters and baseliners and if you she can't serve reasonably well then she will never go deep into tournaments. I'm not sure how optimistic we can be about 2009. She has all those points to defend in Australia and if she can't recover some of them then within no time she'll be out of the world's top 30 or even 50, which would make her tournament draws even tougher and her chances of making it back into the top 10 even harder.

These are all good points. My main concern is that she seems to be regressing instead of improving since her return. At Wimbledon, she beat a solid player in Errani in straight sets and then lost a match to Kleybanova where I felt she played decently. She would have won were it not for a fluky serving performance by her opponent. Considering this was her first tournament back, you had to be pleased and even surprised by how well she played. But arguably, she hasn't played that well since (the win over Sugiyama maybe being the exception). As I pointed out after the US Open, the thing that struck me the most, the weakness that was most pronounced, was her ball-striking ability. Even when she goes well, she will have a fair amounts of errors. But her ability to serve well and to hit the ball hard, crisp and clean during points has greatly diminished. This definitely cost her a winnable match against Cornet which I saw and just as sure cost her many times since. While I cannot foresee her falling out of the top fifty (just a .500 record over the next few months will keep her in the top 30), the point about the ramifications that her falling ranking will have on her draws is very important.

another dissapointment! But I agree with everybody, this wasnt unexpected but still, I was hoping she could pull it off
Her serve is not doing her any good, no power at all, maybe its bacause shes still thinking of the injury