Dates: February 16 - 23, 2013
Venue: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tier: Premier
Prize Money: $2,000,000
Surface: Hard/Outdoors
Tournament Director: Salah Tahlak

Official Website: www.dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com

2012 Performance: Quarter-final. Lost to Julia Goerges 4-6 6-3 6-4

Singles:
Q 1R: Daniela Hantuchova bt Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 3-6 6-2 6-4
Q 2R: Daniela Hantuchova bt Simona Halep (ROU) WO
Q 3R: Daniela Hantuchova bt Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) 6-2 6-2

1R: [6] Petra Kvitova (CZE) bt [Q] Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 6-1

Doubles:
1R: [4] Nuria Llagostera Vives/Zheng Jie bt Daniela Hantuchova/Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-0 6-3

Wow if Daniela was to go on to win this tournament she'd have to win 8 matches

1st set vs. Pliskova
1-0. Daniela holds to 0
1-1. Pliskova holds to 0
1-2. Daniela got broken to 30
1-3. Daniela saves 3 GP's, BP, BP, GP, GP and Pliskova holds
1-4. Daniela broken to 15 , df#1+2
2-4. Pliskova broken to 30
3-4. Daniela holds to 15, ace#1
3-5. Pliskova holds to 30
3-6. Daniela saves 1 SP ,GP, SP and set. ace#2+3

2nd set
0-1. Pliskova holds to 0
1-1. Daniela holds to 15, ace#4
2-1. Daniela saves 2 GP's to get the break
3-1. Daniela holds to 15
4-1.
5-1. Daniela holds to 30 with 2nd GP
5-2.
6-2. Daniela holds with the 3rd SP

I'm now off to stadium to watch Borussia Dortmund vs. Frankfurt Hope for a win for daniela!

Daniela just won the second set 6-2. Pretty good stats in the second set, serving well and 2/2 on BPs. I'd have liked her to be serving first in the third but it shouldn't matter as long as she keeps serving well.

Third set:

0-1, Pliskova holds. Daniela was 0-30 up but never had a BP, saved a GP at 40-30.
0-2, Daniela broken to 15.
1-2, Daniela breaks to 15. Pliskova 4/5 1st serve points won, 2/8 second serve points.
2-2, Daniela holds to 30.
3-2, Daniela breaks to 15.
4-2, Daniela wins a long game on her 4th? 5th GP GP, she had to save a BP.
4-3, Pliskova eventually holds on her 4th or 5th GP. Daniela had a BP on Pliskova's 2nd serve but couldn't take it and Pliskova won some points on her 2nd serve to finish the game.
5-3, Daniela holds from 15-30 down on her 2nd GP.
5-4, Pliskova holds to 0. She's won 6 2nd serve points in a row.
6-4, Daniela serves it out to 15, winning on her 1st MP after 2 hr 13 minutes.

I've got to admit that was a great battling and fighting performance from Daniela and it says a hell of a lot about her character that she fights like that to win a match like this on an outside court after all the tennis she's played over the past week. She played her best tennis in the second set and that was when she served her best. In the third set she only got 44% 1st serves in, although she was 10/16 1st serve & 11/20 2nd serve points won. It was crucial that she served it out at 5-4, because Pliskova was starting to serve well and it would have been tough for Daniela to break her or go on and win a tiebreak. When the scoreboard went 0-15 when Daniela was serving for it I was a little tense but hse won the next 4 points for the match so that kept my peace. Daniela was really helped that she was able to take advantage of Pliskova's 2nd serve in the third and she was 10/13 returning that 2nd serve at the start of the third set but then Pliskova started defending it better and Daniela wasn't getting too much joy against the first serve when Pliskova got it in. Anyway, I'm really happy and proud of Daniela that she got through this although this will have taken a lot out of her for tomorrow. Halep's a decent player and she beat Daniela in similar circumstances in Doha last year so it'll be a tough match but hopefully Daniela will be rested and refreshed for tomorrow. Nesfield can earn her pay getting Daniela ready.

The last time Daniela had to qualify was Sydney 2002 and that year turned out all right.
That's an understatement, Chungwit! I took on the research challenge of reviewing the 2002 season. For some reason, in the yearly breakdown the WTA stopped listing the final record for the season. So I counted Dani's wins, which came out to 56, 2 of which came in the Sydney qualifiers that you mentioned. Then I went to Google and Wikipedia, where it says that Daniela won 56 matches that year. The WTA lists the results of qualifying matches for each tourney (she played a bunch of them in 2001, but I haven't found a win-loss record for the year). Putting all that together, my expert conclusion is that qualies count toward the career record. Until I hear otherwise, therefore (drum roll, please)
#491!
Finally, I found a list of WTA players in the Open era with 500 or more singles victories. There are 33 of them, the most recent being Schiavone. I do not know if anyone else is closer than Daniela, but as I suspected, it's an exclusive club, and she and all of us should burst with pride if she gets there!
I glanced at the stats for today's match, but I'm not concerned about them. All I can say is....what a pro's pro Daniela is! Down a set, down 0-2 in the 3rd, 2 hrs. 13 min., flying in probably late last night, maybe still steaming over the doubles loss, now having played 7 days out of 8, she gets into a Danielathon and finds a way. And that doesn't even take into consideration how this might well be a humiliating experience for someone who has accomplished much and hasn't had to do this in 11 years. What a gutty gal!
Oh, almost forgot. It's now 5 straight matches won in which Daniela has converted the 1st match point. Not bad.

Halep has withdrawn-Daniela gets a bye into the final round of qualifying.

A very nice bit of luck for Daniela to have a bye. It'll be nice for her to have a rest and recuperate because she's played a lot of tennis over the last week and she had a tough, draining match today.

OMG!! What a wonderful day yesterday. Daniela won, Borussia Dortmund won and finally Daniela gets a bye into the next round