Hmm, she's actually too intelligent for that sport. It'll be the goal to put the brain on standby, not thinking too much, just playing your game and win the matches. Just look at Sharapova. She's focussed in every match. That's why she's the real number 1


Afraid I disagree fundamentally with this. Mats Wilander,Miloslav Mecir and of todays players Andy Murray are examples of players who use very intelligent tennis to stymie their opponents. Daniela can play like this,there were definitely flashes of inspiration out there today.

Ok nothing really new after this match,
Daniela had her chances against Radwanska to win this match, but didn't close the sets out.

BUT I think that match is a bit of an improvement in my oppinion. Honestly I didn't really expect a win today. But the performance of today was at least better then last year.
Daniela is fighting again.

I think what Daniela really needs, is one big win again. It is all about confidence, not more and not less.

And IMO there are only two tournaments, that can help Daniela to get back on track.
Of course IW and the AO.

well I pretty much agree with everything said already. The serve, the errors, comments about Aga etc.

Another thing I noticed while watching - and none here has pointed it out so maybe it is just me - but she seemed weak to me. I know she has never been a hard-hitter as such (as Serena, Venus, Davenport etc), but I felt she wasn't hitting harder than Aga. In certain rallies she could have won the point if she had played the ball harder. This is my main concerned right now. She got to number 7 a year ago with the same service as now, playing aggressively so with a lot of winners and UEs, but also hitting a bit harder than today.
I don't think so. The pace of her shots is pretty much the same like last year or 2007. I would even say that Daniela's added some power to her shots, driving through the ball a little bit more. Then again, it's only my subjective opinion.

I'm with Christina on this one. In fact, this was the number one thing I went on about after seeing her play a couple times during the US Open series. I'm not sure what her serve was registering last week, but I'm certain her readings were higher during her peak run of 2007. During IW 2007, I distinctly remember her first serve consistently around and even over 100mph (3 of her matches were televised). She rarely reached that and frequently fell under 90 last year (based on her TV match v. Cornet and her US Open loss to Groenefeld).
Measuring how hard she hits during points is subjective as Martin says, but my impression is that she's not where she was in 2007.

Despite the loss, Im glad she fought hard and that we could apreciate some improvements... Hope she can improve even more for the open. Come on dani

Finally managed to catch some of the match on a Eurosport repeat and was pleasantly surprised:she played much better than I thought from following the online coverage. Her movement was excellent-haven't seen her move that well since the AO last year.

That's exactly how I feel as well. I don't know why some people feel she was blase or passive during the match or had a negative attitude, because I felt she was clearly fighting for points and not giving up. Daniela's known to complain about close line calls, and bad net cords, but it wasn't to the point where it affected her throughout the match. She got over it, focused on the next point and tried to be aggressive again. So to me, that's promising signs of her wanting it.

Daniela's 1st serve doesn't win her any cheap points or even set up the points that well these days but it doesn't get under 90 mph frequently. It oscillates around 96 mph. I noticed some people saying that Daniela has changed her service motion, which I am quite sceptical to so far as nobody has offered any clear evidences to confirm it yet. It might be true but I would like to see some slow motion videos of her current serve and the one from a few years ago to definitely make up my mind.

I agree. I don't think her serve was losing speed in that match. Looking at the speed-reader, she was consistently striking the serve at about 160-170kmph, which is about 95-105mph. I even remember seeing one particular serve hit at 172kmph. As for her alleged new serving motion, I too could not notice any difference. It still looked the same to me, both during her practice and in her matches. If anything, all I noticed was that she looks at her shoes now right before the ball toss.

nevermind