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Career Grand Slam
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 00:40 
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|29. March 2024| 07:16
She's now lost 11 of her last 12 matches against players in the top thirty (beating only Schiavone), which is frankly pathetic for a player of Daniela's talent and accomplishment. I am the only one here who is running out of patience and can foresee her never reaching the modest heights of the top 25 again? It's been seven months since her injury, so that excuse no longer carries much water. I didn't see the match as I just returned home from work, so I don't have much more to say than that.


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 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 02:22 
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|29. March 2024| 23:16
Deja-vu :( for that to happen twice in a month isn't great, Cornet certainly has the mental edge over Daniela thats for sure, the amount of UE's she makes in situations of pressure.. no-one can win when they're making that many

lets hope she doesnt meet Cornet again!



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Tier I Title Holder
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 02:49 
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|29. March 2024| 07:16
I find this to be a frustrating loss.
I agree with what others have said- she has gotten predictable. she is now one of the veterans so the players have seen her play a lot before. I think it is obvious that she needs to try some new tactics. maybe reach out of her comfert zone. On the other hand, she does have the ability to just completely blow a player off the court, she times the ball perfictly. I'd like to say that this will be the turn around match for her. ;)





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Tier I Title Holder
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 04:37 
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|29. March 2024| 23:16
What also sucks is that she's been given some pretty decent draws as well. Brisbane, Sydney, AO and now Paris, she was given quite decent draws. She certainly didn't draw any of the big players and could have really worked her way into the draw and gotten a couple of, at least, QF placings. With her ranking now at 41 and most likely unseeded in future tournaments, she may not get as lucky in the draws, and that's what makes these losses frustrating also.

Still, she has shown that she is capable of playing well lately (i.e. most of her match against Wickmayer, her whole match against Makarova and Set 1 against Cornet). She probably just needs to maintain that high level and not give away big leads. Easier said than done in that last match, especially seeing as Cornet was getting back a lot of balls, but Daniela was in the winning position 99% of the time, and really could have moved in and finish the point.

Oh well, on to Dubai, where hopefully she turns things around, like she did during the Middle East swing in 2007. It is no doubt a tough field, but with *fingers crossed* another decent draw, hopefully Daniela can FINALLY take advantage.
These bad results have to end somewhere. It's been way tooooo long since I've felt happy about Daniela's performance in a tournament. :(


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Grand Slam Champion
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 06:26 
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I think i'm not alone when i say that was one of the worst games to stomach from Daniela for a while. I expected a win today, for whatever reason. I honestly foresaw Daniela moving deep into this tournament, not only defending her points from last season but actually gaining some new ones. This loss to Cornet really makes me doubt her mental state. Someone mentioned that her return from her injury was like 7 months ago, so saying that there's still poor play as a result of that is a load of crap, to be honest. Again, i couldn't watch the match live, but i don't think i'll be downloading this match. I just find the result so frustrating!

I was witness to Daniela's game in Melbourne and i said time and time again that all she had to do was attempt to approach the net and she could finish off some of her points quickly and easier. Granted, i haven't seen the game. But it doesn't seems like Daniela's attitude towards playing Cornet has changed, not has her confidence grown. It seems like such a massive repeat of what happened in Melbourne (and what happened the time before that), yet she's managed to let it happen again. It's like mentally checks out whenever she wins the first set against Cornet, which is just ridiculous considering that Cornet is one of the most tenacious players on the tour.

It seems like her serving was almost identical to Melbourne as well. Considering that she dropped like 5 of her last service games, or something? Despite somehow being able to serve consistently and well during the first set.

I think the most frustrating thing about these losses, is that Daniela is losing to players, that as far as i'm concerned, aren't as good her. I dunno how much longer i can keep telling myself that, but yeah. It's just so annoying to see her lose to the likes of Cornet, especially when we see she's capable to really rolling her (6-1 first set).

I don't think i can be bothered discussing it much more. Hopefully can Daniela can give us something to cheer about sometime soon.

By the way, i just wanted to say thanks so much for the people who have been posting Daniela videos. I usually can't watch her matches, except for at the grand slams (or unless i can find a live stream), so i really, really appreciate the uploads. I'm so happy to have found a community like this :)



"Talent is one step away from being lazy" -- Daniela Hantuchova


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 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 07:34 
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|29. March 2024| 14:16
So I watched the match and it wasn‘t that bad. Daniela played much better than she did in Melbourne. There is no comparison between these two matches. I was a little afraid to watch the match after reading so many incredibly negative comments, but it was ok afterall. I can almost say that Daniela pleased me. When I compare it to how she looked last year after coming back from the injury, she is on a completely different level now.

She showed a lot of improvement on serve and return. I even think that never in her career she returned better. At Melbourne she wasn‘t at this level, but since Fed Cup I‘ve been in awe. Of course she misses here and there, but is very aggressive and Cornet had no idea what to do. Just like Wickmayer and to a lesser extent Makarova – only because she is a lefty. The biggest difference in comparison to previous years is that against 2nd serves Daniela steps inside the baseline, takes the ball early and aims close to the sidelines, especially from her backhand wing. Formerly she stayed behind the baseline, even when facing 2nd serve, which always irritated me so much, she was waiting for the ball to hit it and tried to place it deep down the middle. Her opponent thus had a bit more time to recover and to get back in position. Now that Daniela steps inside the baseline she takes off some time from her opponents to recover, therefore her returns are more dangerous and set up the points nicely. When returning 1st serve she keeps aggressive approach and attacks when she can. After all those years it‘s a nice change and I hope Daniela will continue like that because it works pretty well.

1st serve works pretty well too, especially serve out wide from both sides is very potent. There still is a room for improvement regarding 2nd serve, though. Daniela tends to follow that notorious pattern from previous years when she always aims at backhand of her opponent and hits a short ball with a lot of spin. It is kind of a safe bet, because most players would pound Daniela‘s 2nd serve with their forehand, but nowadays many players possess very good two-handed backhand and they can return the ball very well with it. Especially from ad court, where they have court opened in a wider angle and therefore have a larger space to place the ball in. Cornet isn‘t that tall to hit Daniela's high bouncing kickers early in optimal position in front of her body, but she had absolutely no troubles to read the serve and run around her backhand in order to return it with her forehand. On the other hand I must admit that Daniela flirts with the spin a bit more, can take it off and add pace instead. Sometimes she uses a body serve or aims at forehand of her opponent, but still rather rarely for my liking. She needs to keep her opponent guessing a bit more. It‘s a work in progress.

In her post-match statement she said she had not been aggressive enough. I thought it was a similar stuff she produced in Australia and couldn‘t learn from it, but after watching the match I realized it wasn‘t exactly the case. In Melbourne she lost it already after first few games of the 2nd set and played very poorly and nervously. She also hit many shots she shouldn‘t have. But yesterday she was quite aggressive till 4th game of the last set, stepping inside the court and moving Cornet around, although on this fast greenset most rallies were over quite soon. Then lost her serve and it all went wrong, short balls, worse footwork, poor execution, serve and return not that good anymore, bad timing. Cornet was in control despite losing her serve once more when serving for the match.

Final impression is quite good actually, if I discount last games of the match it‘s even better. There were mistakes at important moments, but that‘s Daniela‘s game, she‘ll always make errors. Very good serve, excellent return. Footwork is better with every match, but definitely not at the level it was 12-13 months ago. We can regret first game of the last set when Daniela had *0-30 on Cornet‘s serve, and was buried in defense the next point, Cornet had an easy putaway at the net but Daniela guessed the direction of the ball correctly. Unfortunately tha ball landed cca 10cm out from the left sideline. Daniela smiled at that, but it was a bad luck. She could have been *0-40 up but instead Cornet won the next couple of points and then the whole game. Once again we witnessed how important is who serves first. Daniela started on serve in the opening set, Cornet in the next two. It puts you under a lot of pressure if you have to win your serve to level the score.

In one recent interview Daniela estimated she was at cca 60% of her 2007 form. I think we can add at least 10%.


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 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 10:37 
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|29. March 2024| 14:16
good read Martin. I would like you to answer this question: what went wrong? Her serve - both first and second seemed fantastic in the first set according to stats. I only saw the first 3 games before danielitsa took over the ES player, but she was winning all the points because of great serving. Either Cornet making an error or giving it to Daniela who then made a winner. Why did it stop in the next two sets? I just don't get it. You always seem very critical towards Daniela which is something I enjoy and therefore I really value your opinion, and found the previous post very enlightening, but I don't think it answers why the scoreline from the first set to the next two differs.





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Career Grand Slam
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 11:16 
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I'm sorry martin but I fail to see how that performance was encouraging in the slightest degree. yes she did miss a gilt-edged chance to break in the first game of the third set but that does not excuse what happened next as the most routine shots were flying into the net or well long/wide. It looked suspiciously like a tank and i find that unacceptable from a player of Daniela's talents.

It's disconcerting to hear that Daniela believes she lost because she wasn't aggressive enough. If anything,the problem was she wasn't patient enough,because Alize was not hurting her in the long rallies,she was just hanging in the points waitng for the unforced error.which more often than not,came along. 50+UE in a match is simply not good enough.


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hellene fan
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 12:08 
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I'm sorry martin but I fail to see how that performance was encouraging in the slightest degree. yes she did miss a gilt-edged chance to break in the first game of the third set but that does not excuse what happened next as the most routine shots were flying into the net or well long/wide. It looked suspiciously like a tank and i find that unacceptable from a player of Daniela's talents.

100% agree with you.
and honestly martin i dont get you


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Tier I Title Holder
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 15:53 
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|29. March 2024| 21:16
I think she can beat Cornet ...she will beat her the next time they meet again...
I also think that Daniela is progressing..becasue the way she play now is ok to me...
lets just wait for more tournaments that she's going to join...I hope she surprise us by beating players above her rank! :P



mOnmOn


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 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 18:08 
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|29. March 2024| 14:16
good read Martin. I would like you to answer this question: what went wrong? Her serve - both first and second seemed fantastic in the first set according to stats. I only saw the first 3 games before danielitsa took over the ES player, but she was winning all the points because of great serving. Either Cornet making an error or giving it to Daniela who then made a winner. Why did it stop in the next two sets? I just don't get it. You always seem very critical towards Daniela which is something I enjoy and therefore I really value your opinion, and found the previous post very enlightening, but I don't think it answers why the scoreline from the first set to the next two differs.Unforced errors plus Cornet playing more courageously, hitting more deep balls and being able to hang in more rallies, but mainly unforced errors. You knew Daniela couldn't maintain the 1st set level of play throughout the whole match (just like Berdych at Australian Open against Federer). She was bound to start missing sooner or later, Cornet saw that and made even bigger effort to turn the match around. Daniela managed to get back on serve in the 2nd set (*4-5), but made other 4 unforced errors in that game and lost it. In the 3rd set she didn't look focused anymore (after losing her serve to 1-3*).
I'm sorry martin but I fail to see how that performance was encouraging in the slightest degree. yes she did miss a gilt-edged chance to break in the first game of the third set but that does not excuse what happened next as the most routine shots were flying into the net or well long/wide. It looked suspiciously like a tank and i find that unacceptable from a player of Daniela's talents.

It's disconcerting to hear that Daniela believes she lost because she wasn't aggressive enough. If anything,the problem was she wasn't patient enough,because Alize was not hurting her in the long rallies,she was just hanging in the points waitng for the unforced error.which more often than not,came along. 50+UE in a match is simply not good enough.Two key elements of Daniela's game are improving, in a long term that's very positive. I don't mind her losing some meaningless match if I see improvements.

To be honest I think Daniela was quite patient. There were several moments when she went for too much instead of constructing points, like on the matchpoint, but not that many. Most errors came either in the middle of rallies or when she tried to hit a winner after constructing the point quite well.
100% agree with you.
and honestly martin i dont get youDaniela's finally addressing issues, which have been concerning me for years and that's why I can take many positives even from this loss.
I think she can beat Cornet ...she will beat her the next time they meet again...Their next meeting looks to be in Fed Cup on Paris clay. As much as I would like Daniela to beat Cornet there, on clay it's not happening.


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hellene fan
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 18:25 
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martin i agree and disagree with you
anyway i trust your instict


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Golden Slam
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 13. February 2009 20:14 
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|29. March 2024| 13:16
Martin gave an excellent analysis of the match and pointed out reasons for optimism. For a lot of the match it was a good performance and Daniela did a lot of things well and showed more variation and flexibility. It was a performance that was good enough to have won a lot of matches against a lot of players and this is why it hurts so much that Daniela didn't win. However, if she can bring performances like she did against Makarova and for a lot of the Cornet match, then she'll get good wins again. Daniela was in a far deeper slump and darker place than this in 03 & 04 but came through and Jankovic lost 10 consecutive games three years ago while Zvonareva was ranked in the 70s.

I also think that Cornet's level had quite a bit to do with the match as she was pretty poor in the first set, but was playing her best tennis in the third set and she said that her serve was best in the third and she was getting aces, service winners and cheap points from it. She saved Daniela's third BP in the first game of the third set with a service winner and her serve got her out of trouble a few more times plus she hit some good winners which she didn't do earlier in the match. Plus she was also hitting deeper which made it harder for Daniela to step inside the court to hit a groundstroke.

I've not watched the match since it happened so I don't have perfect recall of things but it seemed Daniela was having a lot of success early on with wide serves but when the umpire overruled an ace on a wide serve at 0-3 in the second set, it seemed that Daniela took fewer chances with going for the lines. I don't really remember any specifics of the service direction offhand but I don't think that overrule helped.


This is me watching the match:



Daniela Hantuchova is right about everything.


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Grand Slam Champion
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 14. February 2009 08:04 
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|29. March 2024| 23:16
I'm kinda half tempted to download the game now. But i'm worried it'll just make me rage, lol.



"Talent is one step away from being lazy" -- Daniela Hantuchova


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Career Grand Slam
 Post subject: Re: 17e Open GDF-SUEZ, Paris
PostPosted: 14. February 2009 11:08 
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Two key elements of Daniela's game are improving, in a long term that's very positive. I don't mind her losing some meaningless match if I see improvements. I suppose it depends on whether you see the glass as being half-full or half-empty. I agree that her service and movement are so much improved from where they were last autumn. I just think that a win against a top 20 player would benefit her so much mentally and in that sense the match was far from meaningless.


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