Another nice draw. The best part is that Daniela definitely won't be playing til at least Monday as qualifying doesn't finish til Sunday as that gives her an extra day for her leg to heal as some main draw matches also start on Sunday like Brisbane did.

One problem is Li Na plays very well in Sydney-won in 2011 beating Clijsters and finalist last year losing to Azarenka.

One problem is Li Na plays very well in Sydney

That is true, but somehow this matchup favors Dani, at least the last couple of times. The problem might more be getting to the 2nd round.

I write often on Daniela's FB page, and after the injury, I wrote the same thing I wrote here, that trying to play doubles, no matter how noble the reasons, was borderline madness. The video of her laughing with Srebotnik is a bit encouraging, though strange. Maybe it shows that Daniela knew that she shouldn't push it any further. So maybe she'll be OK on Monday. (Tough to type with crossed fingers!) After posing that messsage, I had to go someplace and was in a brooding mood as to why someone so good always luck so bad. I tuned into Sirius XM, and the first song was Chicago's Feeling Stronger Every Day. Not liking the next song, I went to another channel. One guess....Kelly Clarkson, What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stonger. I took that to be a positive sign. We'll see.

Aside for Vika with the toe infection ( ): When I was a little kid and the Cold War was raging, they taught us to Duck And Cover. I had forgotten how that was done. Thanks for the refresher course, Vika!

1. If Daniela's playing doubles ,I'm going to make an educated guess that this is not a horrible injury. If so, we are all grateful. At least for now.

Oh joy! Oh rapture! She's playing with Jules in the doubles!
2. I will make another educated guess: Benji's on the next plane to Sydney!!

Last night I finally finished watching the end of the Errani match. The last 2 games were Daniela as I had not seen her since '11 Eastbourne. With a very disappointing loss staring her in the face, Dani just took charge! The package ended with match statistics. One made my eyes bug out. Net approaches 20-26. 26 trips to the net is normally her total for a month, and we all have long since known she has to do it more. That makes Mr. Glass Half-Empty feel a lot better about this being a potentially teriffic season for our gal if nagging or bad injury can be avoided.

One thing's for sure. Dani won't get KOed this year by Kvitova. Call it Dominika Demolition.

Being Italian myself, Sara's actions at the end, in my view, were Rookie League level compared to the temper tanthrums of people I know. (By the way, the imbeciles who slurrred the AC Milan players, and full marks to them for walking off the field, should be disqualified from the human race.)

Daniela's got Ayumi Morita of Japan in the first round. She's 4-0 against Morita so you've got to favour Daniela to get through. I'd have prefered Daniela to have been on a bigger court than court 5 as sometimes she can have a letdown on the smaller, outside courts but as long as she plays well and keeps her focus she should win easily enough.

Here we go then Daniela vs Morita:

I noticed Morita has stormed through the qualifying rounds all in straight sets, her wins against Hradecka and Erakovic are impressive.

Daniela serving first, holds to 15, 1-0
3 bps for Daniela, now 2bps, Daniela breaks, good start, 2-0
40-15 to deuce, important game here..after several deuces 3-0
Morita holds to deuce 3-1
Daniela holds to deuce 4-1
3 bps for Daniela, yes Daniela breaks to love 5-1

Daniela wins first set 6-1 on her 4th non-consecutive gp with her 2nd ace.

Lots of close games on Daniela's serve but she's winning the important battles at the moment. Daniela didn't face a break point so that's good going.

2nd set:

Morita serving first in this set..

Morita holds to 30, 0-1
Daniela holds to love, 1-1
Morita holds to 15, 1-2
Morita breaks to 30, crap, 1-3
Daniela breaks to 30, well done now hold, 2-3
Daniela holds after a few deuces, common Daniela, 3-3
Morita holds to 30, this is getting edgy.., 3-4
Morita breaks to 30, 6th double fault now for Daniela..,3-5, let's hope Morita chokes this service game..
Morita holds after several deuces to take the 2nd set..3-6
Daniela did not win a single point on 2nd serves this set

Let's hope Daniela can regroup and cope with the heat better..how has this turned into a slog fest..? Daniela cruised through the first set..

3rd set:

Daniela serving..holds to 30..1-0
Morita holds to 15, 1-1
I can't see Daniela winning this..I have an awful feeling..break point Morita..ffs Morita breaks to 30 1-2, why have I stayed up for this shit
Daniela breaks to 15, NOW PLEASE EFFING HOLD 2-2
Daniela holds to 30, 3-2 comon get this game!
Morita holds to 15 3-3 massive game coming up
Morita breaks after about 6 deuces and plenty of gamepoints for Daniela, this does not bode well for the Open..
Morita holds to 30

Daniela serving to stay in the match, how has this happened..

MORITA defeats DANIELA 1-6 6-3 6-3

Well really wasn't worth following livescore with that..really pissed off. That was a good draw too. One thing I really didn't want this year was 1st round losses..already one.