I am a bit disappointed by what Daniela did in the second set. She made a lot of unforced errors. She can't win this way. She never came to the net. I expected more but it's quite a good tournament by the way

Daniela vs Wickmayer now online:

I've given up worrying about Daniela's ranking. She's not consistent enough to make any significant gains from her current position. The most i hope for is a couple of deep runs at isolated tournaments.

Hopefully she gets a decent draw at Wimbledon because she has a much more realistic chance of going deep there. Daniela's form this week bodes well for the remainder of the season, but we said that after her marvellous wins over JJ and she backed that up with some pretty poor first round loses. For that reason, i'm far from optimistic. But there's always hope.

I think Daniela not playing in Birmingham, and entering Eastbourne instead of Den Bosch, is a very bad decision. In Eastbourne she could play a Top 20 player in the 1rst round, and lose, and go to Wimbledon with just one match under her belt. In the smaller tourneys she could at least have two or three wins. I don't know why Daniela has such a high-handed attitude towards the smaller tourneys. Even Sharapova, who's ranked higher than she is, and has achieved a whole lot more in her career, understands that it's a good strategy to enter smaller tourneys to get match-fit. Daniela on the other hand doesn't seem to mind the 1rst round losses. Maybe her sponsors require her to play the bigger tourneys; that could be an explanation. What do you guys think?

I think Daniela not playing in Birmingham, and entering Eastbourne instead of Den Bosch, is a very bad decision. In Eastbourne she could play a Top 20 player in the 1rst round, and lose, and go to Wimbledon with just one match under her belt. In the smaller tourneys she could at least have two or three wins. I don't know why Daniela has such a high-handed attitude towards the smaller tourneys. Even Sharapova, who's ranked higher than she is, and has achieved a whole lot more in her career, understands that it's a good strategy to enter smaller tourneys to get match-fit. Daniela on the other hand doesn't seem to mind the 1rst round losses. Maybe her sponsors require her to play the bigger tourneys; that could be an explanation. What do you guys think?

Daniela is on the tour to enjoy herself and the bigger tournaments are certainly more enjoyable than the smaller ones (and draw bigger crowds). She's financially secure and I would say picks tournaments that she is going to enjoy and that offer the chances of the most points and the greatest potential scalps. She clearly thinks she can still beat the top players when she's at her best so good luck to her. At Eastbourne there are alot of top players but there's no Williams' sisters, no Henin, and no Sharapova - the biggest threats on the tour (besides Clijsters). Players like Wozniacki, Kuznetsova and Azarenka she can beat, and certainly on grass. I am quite surprised that she's not playing Birmingham if she's in the UK because it's a nice tournament with a relaxed atmosphere (the English equivalent to the tournament in Bali I'd say ), but then it seems to consistently rain there and matches build up and that's not too good for healthy, injury-free preparation. I see what you're saying about Sharapova (and she clearly benefitted from entering Memphis and Strasbourg - she won both), but I think it's also important to maintain a schedule that permits recovery time. If she plays alot of the smaller tournaments then that would probably mean playing fewer of the bigger tournaments (Sharapova didn't play Charleston, for instance). I would like to see Daniela get lots of wins but I would also like to see her at the big tournaments playing against the top players. It is only in this scenario that a player can maintain a world-class standard and keep-up with the leading women on the tour.

Rankings with the 4R results:

1 Serena Williams 8475 still playing
2 Venus Williams 6506
3 Caroline Wozniacki 5970
4 Elena Dementieva 5570 with SF points
5 Jelena Jankovic 5380 still playing
6 Agnieszka Radwanska 4010
7 Samantha Stosur 4005 still playing
8 Kim Clijsters 3890
9 Francesca Schiavone 3890 with SF points
10 Flavia Pennetta 3450
11 Na Li 3395
12 Marion Bartoli 3246
13 Nadia Petrova 3195
14 Shahar Peer 3175
15 Vika Azarenka 3170
16 Yanina Wickmayer 3110
17 Maria Sharapova 3010
18 Justine Henin 2855
19 Svetlana Kuznetsova 2821
20 Dinara Safina 2761
21 Aravane Rezai 2755
22 Vera Zvonareva 2725
23 Maria Jose Martinez 2480
24 Jie Zheng 2325
25 Daniela Hantuchova 2285
26 Lucie Safarova 2075
27 Alisa Kleybanova 2010
28 Maria Kirilenko 1985
29 Alona Bondarenko 1855
30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 1850
31 Yaroslava Shvedova 1830 Still playing


So, Daniela closed the gap from 780 to 476 points to top 20 which is good. She also closed the gap to #24 (to get 17/24 seed in wimbledon) from 315 to 40 pts. and from the #30 she increased the gap from 300 to 435pts.

If I'm not wrong here are the points that people are defending till Wimbledon (wimbledon included) that could affect Dani's rank
20.Safina: SF at Ordina Open and Wimbledon = 1030 pts
21.Rezai: 2nd round at Wimbledon = 100pts
22.Zvonareva: 3rd round at Wimbledon = 160pts
23.Martinez: 1st round at Wimbledon = 5pts
24.Zheng: 3R at Aegon Classic, 2R at Aegon International and Wimbledon = 190pts
25.Hantuchova: 4R at Wimbledon = 280pts

So, excluding Safina, all of the above players trying to enter top20 have less points to defend on grass than Daniela.. She really needs a good run at some event on grass before Wimbledon to gain some points.