We all know Daniela isn't very good at winning ugly...

The conditions can be attributed to some of the bad statistics, which is unfortunate because the weather was so good previously. It's disappointing to see though that Daniela was so poor on service. I can remember her service firing at different stages during the start of the season. She hit like 10 aces one match. But it can't have been firing today, despite her having a high first serve percentage. It's a clay court, so you'd be expecting a few more breaks of serve, but Daniela losing almost every second serve point, that's just abominable. Hopefully this game won't affect her too much heading into Wimbledon where she's actually got a chance of moving deeper into the tournament.

Hopefully she can find some form in doubles. But i guess for the moment all her doubles play is going to do is stop her from preparing on grass courts, something which i'm not sure is a good thing. Doubles and singles results really haven't gone hand in hand this season for Daniela, so i'm not sure a strong doubles showing here will mean anything for her coming singles results on grass.

I guess my pessimism over Daniela's chances against Razzano weren't totally unfounded.

Well, I cannot fault Daniela too badly. (Particularly not when the team who was in my avatar blew a 10-0 lead, but that's another story). It's her least favorite surface and Razzano is a quality opponent, playing at home. It's interesting to note that Daniela and Mauresmo, who were two clay court standouts just a few weeks ago in Fed Cup both bombed out in round one.

hantuyama down 1-3
Hantuyama takes the 1st set 7-5

Phew! Daniela loked very sluggish out there,but her returning was generally good.

Where did you watch?Eurosport player had coverage of court 3. Very surprised they showed it, but grateful nonetheless.

It was a very up and down match. Danka a Ai made lots of silly mistakes. They were both behind a break on each set, but ended them in the same manner: 7-5.

Daniela made great crosscourts exchanges and a few nice winners. Her returns, most of the time, were good. But very on and off... The match was rather boring and error filled, so I kept changing channels to see the other courts... Hope they have a nice run here

It's a decent win and a good run in the doubles would help Daniela's confidence.

I wonder how fit Daniela is as she had her leg taped in her Madrid, which is something I can't ever remember her doing before, and her movement has been fairly moderate in Warsaw and Roland Garros. She has played a lot of tournaments lately so fatigue could be setting in a little.

A win in the first round would have been great for Daniela's ranking, given how close she is to the top 30 and also that Razzano is almost a direct rival in the ranking table. Still, there are a lot of tournaments where she can gain points. If she could get a seeding for Wimbledon that would be great.