Women’s Singles

Casey Dellacqua AUS
Zarina Diyas KAZ
Camila Giorgi ITA
Varvara Lepchenko USA
Sloane Stephens USA
Klara Koukalova CZE
Mona Barthel GER
Alison Riske USA
Kurumi Nara JPN
Kirsten Flipkens BEL
Monica Niculescu ROM
Roberta Vinci ITA
Heather Watson GBR
Magdalena Rybarikova SVK
Kaia Kanepi EST
Christina McHale USA
Annika Beck GER
Karin Knapp ITA
Lauren Davis USA
Jana Cepelova SVK
Bojana Jovanovski SRB
Monica Puig PUR
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni CRO
WC Daniela Hantuchova SVK
WC Olivia Rogowska AUS

I have made many a reference to my crappy phone and how aggravating it can be for live scores. Well, my wife and I entered the 21st century and got smartphones. That led me to an app called Tennis Temple, which features a ranking list that they claim is up to the minute. Daniela has moved up 2 spots to #60 going to Hobart. That plus the Errani conquest made this week not so bad after all. Looks like all things are possible in Hobart with this field. Just don't give Daniela a draw with a red-hot qualifier, please!

We'll just see who the qualifier is. Daniela's recent record against qualifiers hasn't been good and the match is likely to be on a outside court which the qualifier will have played on during qualifying.

Diyas has been going steadily up the rankings and Daniela's never played her so it would be a new experience and opponent while Daniela beat Vinci the last time they played in Eastbourne although Vinci's been a tough opponent over the years.

Daniela's always beaten Riske and when she has beaten Riske, she's always had a good tournament: Birmingham winner & US Open quarter-final in 2013 and Birmingham final in 2011, so potentially playing Rriske is a good omen although Riske is playing well these days and won Shenzhen last autumn. Daniela has to take things one match at a time and concentrate on getting past whoever the qualifier is first.

Daniela's Doubles Partner of the Week is.....close your eyes, what do you see? I guess most of her besties are in Sydney this week. OK by me.

Daniela's opponent: Richel Hogankamp, a Dutch lady ranked #139, and never higher than #135. This is something we can hang our hats and hopes on, as she isn't quite the normal hot qualie Daniela gets stuck with. She beat Zhu today in straight sets, but the previous match was a walkover and the first one saw her opponent retire in the second set. On the other hand she has a goodly number of wins over the types of players Dani has lost to. The signature win was over Georges as Gertein in '12 when she was #1 seed, a 1st rounder. Hogankamp also has wins over Bertens, Diyas, Pliskova, Knapp, Bertens again, Pliskova again, Svitolita, Tsurenko, Hradecka, Wickmayer, Czink, Hradecka again, Voegele, and (gulp) Urszula. Daniela has not faced her, but she is 2-0 over players named Daniela (Seguel). Chewing your fingernails yet? Dani could go down here, or she could destroy her. Wait and see, I guess.

You've really got to favour Daniela against Hogenkamp although as Alex said, Hogenkamp has beaten some decent players so she can't be overlooked. I think it helps Daniela that the match is on Centre Court as Daniela will be a lot more comfortable there than Hogenkamp. It does seem like a lot of her losses to qualifiers have happened on outside courts. Daniela will also know when the match is starting so she won't be hanging around waiting and can prepare. Hogenkamp is a bit lucky to be here but she's still here and Daniela still has to beat her. Hogenkamp may feel that whatever happens is a bonus and be inspired as she doesn't have anything to lose. Daniela has to be focused on this match and play good tennis from the start.


A little goal of mine for Daniela is for her to not have any first round losses this year...but I'm not getting my hopes up!

Anyway good luck Daniela!

Daniela's best year for getting past the first round was 2009 when she had only 3 first round losses so if she could do better than that that would be fantastic.

Daniela won 7-6 (10!!) 7-6 (5) Daniela actually beat a qualifier!!

Was a messy match from Daniela but experience won her through. 1st set went with serve (although Daniela had two set points
5-4 up but couldn't take them) and an epic tiebreak ensued..Daniela was 4-6 down in that tiebreak and missed a few set points of her own.

Daniela got an early break in the 2nd set to go 3-2 up but Hogenkamp broke straight back and went on serve to another tiebreak. Again Daniela fell behind 0-2 but then won 5 points in a row playing amazing tennis 5-2 but Hogenkamp got it back to 5-5. Thankfully Daniela won the next two points to take it (match point was awesome)..

Hogenkamp played brillantly to be honest..Daniela maybe 50% of what she can do..but at least she got the WIN!

Will have to play so much better against Diyas to stand a chance..