Dates: December 30, 2012 - January 5, 2013
Venue: Brisbane, Australia
Tier: Premier
Prize Money: $1,000,000
Surface: Hard/Outdoors
Tournament Director: Cameron Pearson

Official Website: www.brisbaneinternational.com.au

2012 Performance: Final. Lost to Kaia Kanepi 6-2 6-1

Singles:
1R:Daniela Hantuchova bt Lourdes Dominguez Lino (ESP) 7-5 6-2
2R: Daniela Hantuchova bt [5] Sara Errani (ITA) 4-6 6-1 7-5
QF: [LL] Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) bt Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 6-4

Doubles:
1R: Daniela Hantuchova/Katarina Srebotnik bt Mervana Jugic-Salkic/Alexandra Panova 6-4 6-4
2R: Daniela Hantuchova/Katarina Srebotnik bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/Lucie Safarova 6-2 6-4
SF: Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Sania Mirza bt Daniela Hantuchova/Katarina Srebotnik 5-1 retired

Time to brace ourselves, folks. Daniela has lost her last 6 singles matches. Assuming she plays on the 30th, she has not won in 72 days. An ugly, precipitous fall in her ranking is inevitable, starting this week. This field is stacked, and there's nothing to indicate Dani could beat even a lesser player if she lucked out in the draw, much less the top player she is more likely to see. And she'll never have the fortune she had last year in Brisbane. All we can hope for is that she has another surprise in store for us, ala Linz '07 and Pattaya '11. Perhaps she used those exhibitions to work on some wrinkles and she'll hit the ground running this week. And I did like the observation from Chungwit that odd numbered years suit her. However, I am ready for the worst, at least in the first 6 weeks.

I checked a site that projects rankings a tournament ahead of time, and it says that with a 1st round loss in Brisbane, Daniela falls to someplace between 45 & 47. Aaaaauuuggh!

Under the category of things could be worse, Daniela opens with Dominguez Lino. It really doesn't matter...Dani just needs a win, no matter who it's against. The next 2 possible opponents, FYI, are Errani and Sharapova.

Well this simply is one of the best draws she could have hoped for with this stacked field.

If she's playing her best a mouth-watering match against Sharapova in the quarters is a possibility, is she is playing lousy first round loss for sure.

Excited at the prospect of Srebotnik/Hantuchova combo, I think that could really be a good team. I wonder if it's for keeps for the Australian Open at least?

Daniela playing 3rd on show court 1 (no stream) tomorrow (Sunday).

Good luck Daniela for 2013 season. We're are all wishing you the best year of your career. xxx

Very good draw in my opinion,in the first round Daniela has all the weapons at her disposal to beat Dominguez Lino,even their h2h speaks,with Danka leading 5-0.But the spanish player had a decent season last year and it could be a tricky one for Daniela.
I'm hoping for a really nice season for Daniela,she can surely do it !

Regarding partnership with Srebotnik, on the site below they explain that Srebotnik will play with Nadia Petrova during this season, Hantuchova being an exception at Brisbane...



Shame..

Wow didn't realise they were streaming show court 1, I managed to see the last 4 games. Daniela played solid, nothing spectacular but seems to play with a clear head. The first set was was crucial to this match as Daniela was able to relax and go for her shots more after winning the opening set. I especially liked her crosscourt angles (reminiscent of 2008) which had margin for error too and also a few serve and volleys which didn't pay off but quite a good tactic if she plays the less offensive players.

Always nice to begin the year with a win, she'll have at least tomorrow maybe even Tuesday off before she faces either Errani or a qualifier. A real chance for quarters here if she plays to a high level.

Daniela had white tape under both her armpits, never seen that before, was that to absorb sweat??