Players:

Caroline Wozniacki

Nadia Petrova

Tsvetana Pironkova

Maria Kirilenko

Roberta Vinci

Hsieh Su-Wei

Jie Zheng

Daniela Hantuchova


Alternates:

Sofia Arvidsson

Alize Cornet

We'll see how Daniela does here. A lot will depend on the draw and if she gets into a good group then she can do well. Daniela has a good record against most of the other players there. I suspect that everyone is hoping that they get Hsieh and Pironkova in their group. Petrova, Kirilenko and Vinci were all playing doubles in Istanbul although doubles isn't that physically gruelling and Sofia's not far from Istanbul so it probably won't affect them that much. Daniela's run in Luxembourg will have given her confidence, although the loss to Niculescu may have dented it a bit, so hopefully that was just one of those things. She'll will have had a week of practice at Sanchez Casal so Daniela should come in prepared and confident and ready to play good tennis.

When Dani won in Thailand last year, I was not yet in the Forum. Out of curiousity I went into the archives to check the mood of everyone prior to the start of that tourney, knowing that she had been winless for years and started 2011 forgetably. My 2 favorite comments were "Wow, there's an outside shot that she could actually win a match here" and "Hope she will get a win at least". It worked. So, I'm going to try doing the exact opposite. I've got a (very deep) feeling that this week's gonna be a good week. In fact, in my mind without question, Daniela is WINNING THIS TOURNAMENT! No questions asked, no doubt about it. I have conveyed this to Dani on Facebook. Taking it a step further, knowing what a stickler she is for preparation, I humbly suggested to her that she select the lucky meal that she will superstitiously eat every day and the place with the swimming pool that she and her Mum will dive into after the final! On Sunday, remember where you heard this first! (I'm sure you guys will either way!)

N.B.: Daniela is blogging this week on her site and the WTA's. See if she agrees with me!

That's a pretty decent draw. The crucial match for Daniela will be against Vinci. Wozniacki's in her best form for a long time winning Seoul & Moscow, she's beaten Daniela twice this year so she'll be very difficult while Daniela bet Hsieh fairly easily in Pattaya and Hsieh's done nothing outside of South East Asia and the ITF. Hsieh does have a similar style to Niculescu but as long as Daniela plays well she should beat Hsieh easily enough. Vinci had a great run of form on the North American hardcourts in the summer winning Dallas and having good runs at the US Open and Montreal but the rest of the time she hasn't done that much and Daniela beat her in Sydney but Vinci's generally given Daniela tough matches. As long as Daniela's in good form and plays well then she can do well here but she has to play well and respect the opponents.

[quote]We joked that already lacks only common game and really gave us the ticket to a group[quote]

Wonder what this means...?

OOP

Daniela starts proceeds against Vinci, a win here is a must...i will be working so won't be able to watch

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Arena Armeec (from 15.50hrs)
1. Roberta Vinci vs. Daniela Hantuchova
2. Zheng Jie vs. Tsvetana Pironkova (NB 18.15hrs)
3. Caroline Wozniacki vs. Hsieh Su-Wei (NB 20.00hrs)

Word is Caro said she thinks the court is almost a little too fast...but she just played in Moscow which were ultra slow.

Hopefully it is true that it's fast, Vinci will try and slow everything down, so Daniela must not selfdistruct like she did against Niculescu. Hopefully her and her coach have solved this. Vinci's a tough customer, but she looked surprisingly lacklustre in Istanbul but obviously that was only one match. Vinci gave Venus quite a tough match in Luxembourg so it's definitely going to be a tough first match for Daniela. A semifinal showing here would just be awesome, hopefully a good first match win can boost Danielas confidence when she plays the other two opponents