Daniela Hantuchova: My grandmother and Hingis had the biggest influence on my career



Former number five Daniela Hantuchova in the world is the latest athlete to qualify for the Tournament of Champions, which will take place between October 30 and November 4 at "Arena Armeec" in Sofia. She fell into a group with Caroline Wozniacki, Roberta Vinci and Su-Wei Xie. 29-year-old Slovakian tennis player currently occupies 32 th place in the world and has five titles on the WTA calendar in his career. In Grand Slam best performance of her single is from the Australian Open semi-finals 2008, couples have lost four finals and mixed doubles - four titles. Before "Diary" Hantuchova said expectations for the event and spoke about his first steps in the sport of friendship in women's tennis for her love hockey and eight years in execution of the works of Beethoven, Mozart and Bach.

Hi Daniel! How are you feeling and what are your first impressions of Sofia?
- I feel great. It is nice to be in a new place and meet new people. We have many wonderful memories. Sofia reminds me a lot of Bratislava, so I feel like I'm home. Life and atmosphere are almost the same as in Slovakia, which is very nice.

What do you think of the event?
- I expect a very strong and high quality tournament. The room was great. The organization was very good and all are working very hard to make a great event. I hope many people come to support us.

Caught in a difficult group. What are your expectations?
- I managed to qualify literally at the last minute so that all players are before me, with the front rank. I expect every game to be extremely difficult, but I will give everything and I hope to do well.

For a long time in the world tour. How has women's tennis in recent years and how to change your own?
- Obviously had to change a lot. Must continually learn, because women's tennis has changed a lot in recent years, it became much more power and more rely on physics. Now more rarely see long rallies. So, to adapt, to change and the way you train, what you work on. At the same time it is important to keep your style, your identity, to try to keep what I have always bore success. Ultimately, the most important thing is to always enjoy when on the court.

You're one of the tennis player, to which has the most attention. Does it bother you that you and affects your concentration?
- No, it does not bother me at all. I'm used to these things over the years. I know this is part of my job. I love tennis, I love what I do, and those things are part of it, so I try to have fun. Of course, I'd rather be on the court and play, but things are what they are, so it is better to take all the attention with a smile and enjoy, rather than look at it negative.

Translation by Google

And I thought she had a chance

This makes me very unhopeful for next season.

This is depressing. To lose by this margin to her biggest rival for qualification is going to make it very difficult for Daniela to qualify. It is worrying that she's lost by such big margins in her last two matches although Vinci did play well. Hsieh has a similar style to Niculescu and Vinci and although she's only had 2 top 50s wins this year and has done pretty much nothing outside of South East Asia, she's looming as a tough match given the problems Daniela's had recently and the matchup problem she could present. Daniela has a day off tomorrow to prepare for the match so she has to raise her game. If Daniela plays well she should win easily enough but if she plays like she did against Vinci or Niculescu then it'll be a really tough match.

Hantuchova: Vinci did not leave me a chance

30.10.2012

Daniela Hantuchova started out with a loss at Qatar Airways Tournament of Champions. In the first match from the “Serdika” group the Slovak was defeated 1:6, 2:6 by Roberta Vinci. They met for the 5th time and Vinci leads 3:2 wins. After the game Hantuchova admitted her opponent was better.

“I have never taken to the court so unconfident of myself. Today was not an exception, but against me I had such an amazing player. Vinci played exellent, she hardly made any mistakes and was covering the whole court. I admit – she was better in every way she deserved to win," says Hantuchova.

“During the season I was injured for 3 months and I am still not in my best shape. It is not easy to get back into rhythm, after so much time off the court. I practice every day, I give my best. I am a very experienced player and I know that if I train hard enough I will get back into my best shape.”

Hantuchova, ranked 32, confessed that one of her goals in the next few years is to finish her higher education. The charming player conceded she will countinue with her charity, because she likes to help the people in need.


"In my performance was nothing to what I could be happy. Grueling played great, did minimum errors, especially in the first set I did not let on any more serious chances., If I think about the next game to win, I have improved a hundred percent, adapt to the altitude, which strikes badly controlled. doing here for seven strings 'pounds' less than normal, but I'm still flying. Wednesday is a lot of work ahead of me and I find it good that I have a day off. Tennis players because are not used to that after losing more given the opportunity. That's perhaps the only positive," commented Daniela Hantuchova.
@ google translate.


Hantuchova admitted after the game that deservedly won Vinciová.

"Roberta was now better in all aspects. Doing a minimum of errors did not beat me. During the match, I could not get up to speed. Hard, I deal with a altitude of 600 m, which is similar to that in Madrid, I could not well controlled strokes. However, the conditions were the same for both, Vinciová they adapt much better. Nicolas coach me at the end of the first game emphasized so much that I not opened court. In the second act, it was on my part a little better, but it certainly was not performance, with whom I could be satisfied. Vinciovej slajzy jumped low and I could not print it. Neither the forehand or the backhand, I could not find the key to let it in exchanges could somehow compromise. addition, Robert also served very well, it was just better on the court," said Hantuchova, who despite losing the initial pierce even give up.

"This tournament is special, because even after losing still have a chance. Matches against Wozniacki in Hsieh and on Thursday and Friday but I have to give a 100 percent better performance than today, when I think of success."
@ google translate.

WTF Not that they aren't interesting anyhow, but Daniela's blog should be fascinating reading tonight.

There will be no white flag upon my door. She's still winning the tourney!

Sorry Alex but it'd be a miracle if she makes the semis...sigh...

Hantuchova: I have no excuse for their performance
"I have no excuse for their performance," said Daniela Hantuchova.

Slovak tennis player lost today 6-2, 6-1 by Italy's Roberta Vinci in the Tournament of Champions. After defeats Hantuchova said performance. "I always come away confident on the court, but today Vinci made a great game. It made almost no errors and totally beat me. I have no excuse for their performance. Was hard to find my rhythm after the injury. I had four months off the court and I hard to find a game. well not play the game before today, whatever I tried did not work. Nevertheless, I am an experienced player I have confidence for myself and I will do my best to get back to the level that all know, "said Hantuchova.

Tennis player commented plans off the court. "I started to study at the university, but now I'm not so steady there. Because of his injury had to be treated outside the country and could not attend the lectures. Complete their education is one of my goals since I'm only in my family without higher education. dont know what to do after tennis. currently not planning to retire. I'm interested in fashion, but my main objective when I finish my career as a tennis player to find a husband and have children, " said more Hantuchova. / BGNES

@google translate

Daniela to play Wozniacki tomo and Vinci to play Hsieh tomo too...that means that Wozniacki and Vinci are playing 3 days in a row...they have obviously done that so Woznaicki and Vinci who are most likely to go through will get Friday off before the semis on saturday...bugger, well hopefully Wozniacki will be tired when she plays Daniela tomo I guess...

We'll just see how Daniela does tomorrow. Wozniacki beat Vinci fairly easily today so she'll be really confident, she's in her best form for a long time and she's won her last two matches against Daniela while Daniela's lost her last two matches pretty badly.

Daniela should just concentrate on playing her game as well as she can, look to be competitive and see what happens. Remember Roland Garros 11.

"It would be great, but to be honest it's not really the big goal for me here," Wozniacki said. "I'm just very pleased about the way I'm playing. I'm really enjoying myself out there. I feel like I've found my game again and I'm playing the way I want to. And right now I'm just thinking of winning this tournament.

"I just have to take it one match at a time."

"I'm playing against three completely different players this week," Wozniacki said. "Daniela plays very flat and deep and just goes for her shots. I just have to serve and return well and we'll see how it goes when we play tomorrow."

Vinci played awfully today against Caroline nothing like she played against Daniela, sigh Daniela always has to earn all her wins...

No Wednesday blog from Daniela...hmmmm..