Mr. Chungwit: You and I feel almost exactly the same way about Daniela in almost every way (now, thinking the way I do can be dangerous; if I was you I'd be scared! ). If we now see this year as ruined and a What Might Have Been, imagine how she sees it. Daniela rarely blows up over bad calls; that's one of the gazillion admireable traits about her. She was quoted that she got "a bit frustrated" in the third yesterday; to me, it almost seems like a bit of despondence, and that would be very sad. Between Pattaya and Eastbourne (it's that injury when she was belting Petra that I trace it all back to), Dani knows that she'd never had it more together, physically and in mental strength. Had she gotten a draw like this week's in May or June, Dani would have cruised to the final. We know it; she must feel it. Daniela deserves so much better; my heart goes out to her as well.
It has made me bristle of late when people suggest that she sit out tourneys. But now it's tempting to say she should let Bali go and get a solid 2 1/2 months of rest and practice/training. Knowing how well she did in the 1st half of this year and how much of that is attributable to how she went all in last off-season and notably improved in fitness and strength, I imagine Dani will push herself even harder to get back where she was. Particularly with a gold medal to shoot for, which she knows is her last shot at that.
Like I said, it's tempting to say that. But this is our Daniela. It's patently obvious that her form is horrific. She's going down to lucky losers; life and death to win over nobodies. One can only conclude that Bali is one and done, as ugly as she is beautiful. So we look back. Counting her loss in her last match at Bali last year, she lost 5 straight matches, including 2 first round bow outs featuring a AO defeat to the immortal Regina Kulikova and 2 dismal defeats in the opening Fed Cup round at home. I looked back at what we were saying as Pattaya began. Things like please let her win at least one round and omg, Date-Krumm, who she never beats. Boom! Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, sweet, and completly unpredictable, victory. Would any of us fall over dead if she does it again? Let's Go, Daniela!

There have been a lot of upsets at this tournament and in Moscow as well. Daniela's far from the only player to have had a bad result this week.

Benji my brother: You're right; that's been a problem for Dani too often. What I was saying was that she doesn't put on Nastase/Connors/McEnroe displays (I know that in her early years there was some racket throwing, which she says she now regrets), and if I'm reading Jean Raj correctly, she did do that this time, and that would be very disconcerting. And believe me, I want her to play in Bali, to get hot for 3 days, and shock the world (and a lot of us)! Geaux, Daniela!

Doesn't this only figure? Even when Daniela's not playing, we have to reach for the Pepto Bismol! Tip of the cap to Vika for getting Goerges out of the way, but now we have to sweat out tomorrow. I don't know why, but WTA site says that Nicolescu gets into Bali if she wins. It would seem that Vika should take care of her, but this is our star-crossed Daniela that we're talking about, and if we can't see what all year long has been a cinch berth in Bali yanked out from under her at the last second, then we don't understand life. Here's hoping that doesn't happen.

See, that's why I joined this. On Dani's FB page there's only like one person who really knows all the inside stuff. Much obliged. Now let's see Dani rally in Bali!