Full entry list

Justine Henin BEL
Kim Clijsters BEL
Jelena Dokic AUS
Ana Ivanovic SRB
Nadia Petrova RUS
Daniela Hantuchova SVK
Alisa Kleybanova RUS
Aleksandra Wozniak CAN
Melinda Czink HUN
Iveta Benesova CZE
Agnes Szavay HUN
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS
Lucie Safarova CZE
Peng Shuai CHN
Sara Errani ITA
Olga Govortsova BLR
Timea Bacsinszky SUI
Sybille Bammer AUT
Andrea Petkovic GER
Tathiana Garbin ITA
Ekaterina Makarova RUS
Roberta Vinci ITA
Lucie Hradecka CZE
Anna-Lena Groenefeld GER

Well, you'd expect Daniela to do better here than she did last season. Hopefully she'll at least do that much. But the early Australian summer has never seen anything particularly special from Daniela, so who knows.

It's a reasonable enough field and Daniela should be able to beat most of the players there. Although she went out in the first round here last year, her form wasn't great at the time and her coaching situation was a bit up in the air, plus Errani was in her best form of the year in January, so there were some mitigating circumstances although Daniela should still have won. This year I feel Daniela's got a bit more form and confidence, she's got a settled coaching situation with a good experienced coach in Passos and it seems that her off season work went well. Also, she doesn't have as many points to defend in Australia as she did last year, so there's not the same pressure on her.

Daniela had fewer first round losses in 2009 than she did in 2007 and whenever she did lose to a "bad" player last season, they generally had their best week of the year that particular tournament. I feel as long as Daniela plays well she should have a decent run. There are some dangerous floaters in the draw, especially Henin who beat Pennetta and Petrova in recent exhibitions, so we'll see what the draw is. Hopefully she gets a reasonable draw and she's able to have a good run, so Daniela can have confidence and momentum going into Melbourne as well as securing a top 24 seeding. We'll see what happens.

BTW: May be, it's not important, but Daniela has a (new) lover, a slovak tabloid reported last week. It's a 48-yrs old Italian Marco, probably her fitness trainer. Both have benn spotted in Bratislava during a xmas shopping.

P.S. I met Daniela this year on a sunny Oct 25 at a suburb of Bratislava. I was on a bike trip, she was on inline-skates with friends, accompanied by her mother. I made pics of the group after Daniela asked me. I had left my camera at home, but never mind! Daniela looks so beautiful in her pink dress an thats was enough fo me. I wish Daniela good start in the new season.

Well if Marco and Daniela are together then that's great so long as he makes Daniela happy.

At the end of 2009, I did see Daniela was getting her form back (although it is nowhere to compare with her 2007 form). So I hope for a better season, especially this year's tennis is gonna be very interesting with some Comebacks. Honestly, I have a feeling if Daniela is gonna do something, then it will be this year. Otherwise she is done with tennis.

One more thing, I really do wanna see she takes advantage of good draws or opportunities whenever she is given. (2009 was just a waste of luck)