Daniela will likely take a WC in New Haven, I wonder what you guys would say about that.

Daniela will likely take a WC in New Haven, I wonder what you guys would say about that.I would say it was never in doubt!

well New Haven have such a weak field, only top10 is Wozniacki, so good chance to get points, but I hope she doesn't tire herself out

hope not play

Eddy,benji did you see the match?

- there's the video and the service return from Shvedova lands 2-3cm wide. It is so clearly out and a total bullshit call. Even if the linejudge misses it, the umpire should overrule when the error is as obvious as that. It'll have been Alison Lang. It's tough to win when the opponent has a bigger court to hit into and you're playing the officials as well as the opponent.
Picture 5.png how the hell is that in? Maybe the linejudge should have brought his guide dog.


I just don't see the point of Daniela playing New Haven. She's had a substantial hardcourt season with a lot of good wins, but she's also had a lot of long, tough matches and I think she'd benefit a lot more from resting and practising than playing. If Daniela had won yesterday, then I don't think she'd consider a wildcard for New Haven, even if she'd lost to Serena. Playing one match less shouldn't change her schedule. For me, she's spent enough time on court and I don't believe she should play another tournament because she played one match less in Toronto. Maybe she wants to defend the New Haven qf points from last year, but playing there won't make a difference to her US Open seeding and a run at the US Open would boost her more. The New Haven/US Open double has done nothing for her for the past couple of years.

Daniela's 2003 US Open run was her best run in a slam between the 03 Australian Open and the 04 US Open (she got a 2nd round bye at Wimbledon 04) and she had easy wins in the first two rounds in 05 before she lost to Venus who was in great form at the time and in 2006 Daniela had a tough early draw against Serena but Daniela played well in the first set but blew it when serving for it and gave the momentum to Serena. Daniela was competitive unlike Ivanovic in the next round who looked like a rabbit in the headlights the whole match and never threatened. Serena also gave Mauresmo a tough match and Mauresmo had the best slam results of 2006.
I'd definately say Daniela's 03, 04 and 05 runs compared very well with her other slam runs at the time and it's only been the last couple of US Opens where she's underperformed, especially in 2007. The past two years she prepared by playing at New Haven for no tangible results (1 win, 4 losses) and I don't see chasing results at New Haven being a benefit. Prior to Toronto, Daniela had had a lot of good wins and she shouldn't risk undermining what she's done by overplaying.

Eyewitness accounts say that Daniela was in a foul mood and being unpleasant to ballboys so it's just as well we didn't see it. I really don't like her behaving that way.

Chungwit,plese tell me you're joking about Daniela's US Open 2003 performance. It was heartbreaking to see her dissolve into tears at her opponents moonballing tactics in the second round,and Tanasagurn wiped the floor with her in the next round.

I rate her performances at the Australian Open 2005(where she gave Dementieva a fright) and at Wimbledon(where she held her own against Venus much better than at the subsequent US Open) as her best slam performances in that period.

Spot on,Eddy. She does have a great chance to win providing her heads in the right place.

I'm not saying that what Daniela did at the 2003 US Open was great, what I am saying is that compared to her other slam results of the period, they were decent. At Roland Garros and Wimbledon 03, she had absolutely traumatic second round losses that eviscerated her, she crumbled against Molik at the 04 Australian Open (although she got revenge for that with at great performance at the 04 US Open) and she was thrashed by Asagoe at Roland Garros 04. Between Berlin 03 and Eastbourne 04, a run of 25 tournaments, Daniela won two matches at only two of them, one was the 03 US Open. The other was the 04 Pan Pacific and that was easily her best tournament of that time, beating Molik and Shazza.
I'm not saying the 03 US Open was a good tournament in absolute terms or that Daniela played well there, I am saying that relative to what else was happening to Daniela in the dark period from Indian Wells 03 to Eastbourne 04, the 03 US Open was a decent tournament.

Daniela said in 2004 that although I thought it (03 US Open) was terrible at the time, compared to what else was happening at the time, it was pretty good and I did get to the third round of the US Open.