No one's posted here in a long time, I see. Sharapova is the most overrated performer in all of professional sports, and I follow almost all of them!
But I have another fish to fry, going way back. (I was really hoping to do this after a Daniela victory at the Open or even Quebec City, but it's worth it under any circumstances. The longer you have been a fan of Dani's, the more you'll get this and enjoy it.)
Return with me to early 2002. Daniela was 18, an innocent ingenue. She had been gaining recognition throughout '01 for her play, for being attractive, and for her choices of outfits on court. This did not sit to well with the WTA's Reigning Glamour Queen, Anna Kournikova. As was her wont, she displayed her classic high level of maturity by unleashing a series of snooty comments at Dani, most notably "she needs to learn more about doubles" after Daniela played an Australian Open doubles match in a particularly eye-catching outfit. Daniela fired back a pretty strong return volley: "I don't care about it or her. What I care about is the way I perform on court. But I am glad people can write a lot about my tennis, too, more than hers." (Oh Yeah, Dani! BULLS-eye! Right in the solar plexus. Even after almost 10 years, still LMBO!!")
This was not well received by Anna's legions of fans (can you believe that she still has 1.4 million Likes on her FB page?). Recall that this was before Dani's breakthrough at Indian Wells. They screamed: "Who's this Wannabe Slovakian nobody? What has she done?"
Time is the great settler of debates. What has Daniela done? You all know; I'll just list a few of my favorite highlights. Daniela has, if we throw in ITF victories (and I'm writing this...who's gonna stop me!), 22 singles and doubles titles. This includes the career Slam in mixed, which only 4 other women have done, all Hall of Famers, and as usual, something for which our gal gets next to no credit for. She has beaten 29 different players who at one time or another were ranked in the Top 10, a total of 77 times, as recently as last month over Bartoli. She has 454 career singles wins. And she's still going strong! 
Tonight here in America, on the NBC Television Network, at 8:00 PM New York time, the famed personal trainer Jillian Michaels will be replaced as one of the head trainers, by none other than Anna Kournikova, on The Biggest Loser.
'Nuff said! 
Let's Go, Daniela!
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