Dates: August 7 - 13, 2012
Venue: Montreal, Canada
Tier: Premier
Prize Money: $2,168,400
Surface: Hard/Outdoors
Tournament Director: Eugene Lapierre

Official website: www.rogerscup.com

2011 Performance: 2nd round. Lost to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 7-5 6-2

Singles:
1R: Alexandra Wozniak (CAN) bt Daniela Hantuchova 7-5 7-6 (5)

Doubles:
1R: Daniela Hantuchova/Dominika Cibulkova bt [WC] Sharon Fichman/Marie-Eve Pelletier 5-7 6-3 12-10
2R: Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Sania Mirza bt Daniela Hantuchova/Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-3

Shitty draw for Daniela,

1r Wozniak
2r Jankovic
3r Sharapova
QF Wozniacki

GROAN

Order Of Play Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Central (from 12.00hrs)
1. Roberta Vinci vs. Yanina Wickmayer
2. Tamira Paszek vs. Julia Goerges (NB 14.00hrs)
3. Chanelle Scheepers vs. Stéphanie Dubois (NB 18.00hrs)
4. Aleksandra Wozniak vs. Daniela Hantuchova (NB 20.00hrs)

Daniela playing terribly was 4-2 up but now 4-5 down and Wozniak serving for set Why am I staying up for this...?

5-5 and now 5-6 of course...

Numerous chances to get it to a tiebreak but no 5-7, Wozniak will play with more freedom now, which makes her more dangerous..oh Daniela...

1-3 down to 4-3 comon daniela take this to 3! Daniela stops the point mid to challenge but wrong 2 bps and Wozniak is serving for the match, Daniela close to tears...somehow Daniela breaks back 5-5, now HOLD Daniela as if your life depends on it! Nope 15-40...and huge double fault...5-6 Wozniak serving again for the match...somehow Daniela breaks back 6-6, tiebreak...RAIN DELAY, I'M OFF TO BED, GOOD LUCK DANIELA...

This is by far the worst match of the year by far from Daniela whatever the result, nuff said...blind, reckless hitting, no construction, and no excuse for it...Claudio is clearly not helping her game, but they seem to get on well so I don't understand, maybe she needs someone really mean, maybe Claudio is too nice...

I'm usually not that harsh on Daniela's performance, but in this match there's no way of coating it in sugar...

I've been following Hantuchova's career on-and -off now for quite a few years, and I finally decided to join a forum, because I don't think she's going to be around for much longer, and it might be interesting(or depressing) to see how she fares in the closing chapter of her career. I was not really surprised by the loss last night:; Daniela's never played very well during the US Open series, and aside from the win over over Na Li at the Olympics her form has been sub-par. This is NOT a coaching issue; she must have had 6 or 7 different coaches over the past 5 years and not one of them really added much to her game. On a positive note; she doesn't have a lot of points to defend until the end of the year. She does have to build a cushion though, because if she loses early in Brisbane, Melbourne and Pattaya next year, she'll be out on her way out of the Top 100. If that happens, I don't see her playing on.

Order Of Play Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Court 9 (from 12.00hrs)
1. Mona Barthel vs. Timea Babos
2. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Varvara Lepchenko
3. Cibulkova/Hantuchova vs. Fichman/Pelletier
4. Kops-Jones/Spears vs. Bouchard/Wozniak

2nd set:

1-0, Pelletier broken to 40, served an ace & a DF.
1-1, Daniela & Dominika broken to 15.
2-1, Daniela & Dominika break Fichman to 30.
2-2, Daniela & Dominika broken to 40, were 40-30 up.
2-3, Pelletier holds to 15, served a 2nd serve ace and a DF.
3-3, Dominika holds to 30, served a DF.
4-3, Fichman broken to 15.
5-3, Daniela holds to 15.
6-3, Daniela & Dominika break Pelletier to 30.

Super Tiebreak:
1-0*
1-1
1-2
1-3*
2-3*
3-3, DF Fichman
4-3
4-4*
5-4*
6-4
6-5
7-5*
7-6*
8-6
8-7
8-8*
9-8*
9-9
9-10
10-10*
11-10*
12-10

It was a battling win, but a win's a win and hopefully Daniela and Dominika can put in a good run in the doubles. A good run and some wins would give Daniela some confidence and get her into the winning habit again.

By the way, I did find time to look up the 500 win thing (it's like pulling a wisdom tooth, or living through a Daniela 3rd set tiebreaker!). There were 30 players at 500 or more staring the year. Serena, Schiavone and Petrova made it this year, and Pennetta is at 499. That would make it 34. Anne Kremer has 482, and Dani 478. So she has a decent shot to be the 35th to do this. With her present struggles, she may have trouble doing this, as Svetlana, Zvonereva and one other good player that I forgot are in the 450-460 range. For what it's worth, now we know!