Dates: 20 - 26 July 2015
Venue: Istanbul, Turkey
Tier: International
Prize Money: $226,750
Surface: Hard/Outdoors
Tournament Director: Stefan Tzvetkov

Official website: www.istanbulcup.com


First Appearance

Singles:
1R: Daniela Hantuchova bt [WC] Cagla Buyukakcay (TUR) 4-6 6-3 6-2
2R: Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) bt Daniela Hantuchova 6-1 6-1

We'll just see how Daniela does here. It's a pretty strong field so Daniela would have a tough match against most of the players here. She had a decent grass season so hopefully she takes the momentum from that into this tournament and a run here would be a nice boost to her ranking and confidence. Istanbul is somewhere she's never played before so we'll have to see how well she adapts to the conditions. Hopefully this is Turkish Delight rather than getting kebabed.

Why is it that no matter where Daniela goes, a home town player is waiting for her? Sheesh. But if Dani carries over at least some of her form from Britain, she'll probably be OK.

Cool! It should start around 9:00 AM in New York.

Well Daniela won

But I only saw the first set and Daniela was ropey...pleased to come back and see her serving out easily.

Next up Tsurenko who Daniela always struggles against and is a very annoying player...Daniela will have to be on peak form.

Daniela looked soooo good on court!

That was a bit harder than it needed to be. Saw the match from 3-0 Daniela in the second set and Buyukakcay fought back to 3-2 and Daniela wasn't playing well at all as she was making a lot of errors and she was sluggish and she wasn't moving well. Daniela battled and was able to break to go 4-2 up in the second, she held after having to save 3 Bps to go 5-2 up and she was able to serve the set out to level the match . The third game of the third was crucial in the match as the umpire made an overrule when Buyukakcay had game point and looked to have held but the point was replayed, Daniela won the point and went on to break before going 5-1 up as her level went up. Daniela made fewer errors in the third set, dictated most of the points while Buyukakcay made more errors and her level went down. She could have won the last six games of the match but Buyukakcay fought back form 0-30 to hold although Daniela served out for the win.

It's a win, Daniela won easily enough in the end but it was a lot more of a struggle than it should have been but once again Daniela showed her fighting spirit to win. Buyukakcay did win a set against Pliskova here a year ago so she does raise her level at her home tournament, it's just as well that Daniela was able to raise her level when she needed to.

It would have been nice for Daniela to have had tomorrow off as she had a long match today while Tsurenko's had the day off. At least she knows the earliest time she's due to start so she can plan her day a bit better and she can get a bit of rest but it was a draining match today.

Tsurenko had a great run at Indian Wells getting to the quarter-final beating Petkovic, Cornet & Bouchard but she hasn't done much since although she had a good win in the first round against Gavrilova and she's been a tough opponent for Daniela in the past. First set will be so important as Tsurenko's won the first set in all the previous matches so if Daniela can take the first set that will change the dynamic of the rivalry, give her a boost and give Tsurenko doubts.

No matter what, Daniela's done better here than Venus Williams, Jankovic & Svitolina so there is a good chance for her to do well here.