A good win by Daniela, her first straight sets win since Cincinnati. She should some confidence from this and hopefully she's over her recent issues. It was quick so it shouldn't have taken too much out of her.

Daniela's second serve could have been better, especially in the second set, but she did a great job in converting break points winning 6 out of 7.

A win in the doubles tomorrow would be great and keep Daniela & Agnieszka's momentum going.

Nice doubles win. GL tomo vs Flavia

Tomorrow's an important match as Daniela is just ahead of Pennetta in the rankings and a win would keep it like that plus it would show that Daniela's back in the groove. Daniela beat Pennetta in straight sets when they played in August and her form's been better than Pennetta's for most of this year. Pennetta will be confident after her run at the US Open and after beating Peng although Pennetta is 6-0 against Peng so maybe that wasn't so much of a shock. So much will depend on Daniela's level.

Ouch. What a beat down. Didn't expect it to be so one sided. It's a shame daniela hasn't performed well in any of the mandatory events this year except the french open. If she had done a bit better she would be back in the top 20. I personally don't like the system of counting the points from mandatory tournaments to everyone's ranking. I think it should just be top 16 events whatever.

This is so disappointing. It's obvious that Daniela's season has been derailed by that foot injury because she beat Pennetta and Erakovic in straight sets just a few months ago and they've beaten her in her last two tournaments. Pennetta is running into form and she'll have a lot of confidence from her US Open run and it seems like she's playing her best tennis of the year at the moment. Daniela was unable to make any inroads into Pennetta's serve and Pennetta was dominating Daniela's first serve, although her second serve held up fairly well. The death of her grandmother will also have affected Daniela a lot and she is playing under very difficult circumstances. I'm so sorry for her and I just want to give her a hug and a shoulder to cry on. Another thing is that players around Daniela in the rankings - Pennetta, Cibulkova and Kirilenko - have all reached the third round.
There is still the doubles here so it would be nice if Daniela and Agnieszka can have a run there.

Hopefully, Daniela can do well in the indoor tournaments and Bali and she can have a good off-season and go to Australia refreshed, healthy and focused.


Ouch. What a beat down. Didn't expect it to be so one sided. It's a shame daniela hasn't performed well in any of the mandatory events this year except the french open. If she had done a bit better she would be back in the top 20. I personally don't like the system of counting the points from mandatory tournaments to everyone's ranking. I think it should just be top 16 events whatever.

I read an Italian article about the ranking system and it calculated that Daniela would have been 15th under the previous system after Cincinnati because she'd have gotten a lot of quality points from all the top 10 wins she's had this year. Being injured at the Australian and US Opens didn't help her either.

The quality system was a bit strange. I just think that they should just count each players top 16 tournaments full stop.

Mr. Chungwit, we would all love to be able to offer Daniela a hug and a shoulder to cry on, and there certainly have been times recently where we'd think she could use it. One of the many admirable qualities that makes it easy to root for Dani is her resilience. Given all that she has put up with in this profession, I would guess that about 80-90% of the other players would have quit the sport a long time ago (e.g. the trainer whose team gets beat every week on the Biggest Loser, a perfectly named continuance of her tennis career). She will overcome the recent sadness and injuries and keep on keepin' on. The haunting thing is that from February to June, it looked like it had all finally come together for Daniela, physically and mentally. We can only hope that there's one more run like that in the next year or two.
Now, the absolute last thing Dani needs is suggestions from me! One wonders, though....Daniela and Aga have clicked so well. They enjoy themselves playing together. We even see the Priceless Smile from Dani every so often during their matches. She's said that they play for fun and don't take it overly seriously, yet they sure do win a lot. I guess you don't have to have total, searing intensity to do well in doubles. I well remember the first player I ever rooted for, Kerry Melville, giggling and laughing throughout a Wimbledon doubles final with Wendy Turnbull, and they ended up the winners. Anyhow, for the sake of argument, let's say that Daniela doesn't get her singles act together again (and please, this isn't what I want to happen). Further, that Aga doesn't decide she'd rather play doubles with her sister. Let's say the two of them continue to click and even win something rather big sometime soon (this week would be nice). Clearly, Dani still loves to play and loves the lifestyle. At the same time, she would probably detest fading in the singles rankings and futilely chasing dreams of Slam titles. Would she consider specializing in doubles to close out her career? Particularly if Aga and her become one of the very best teams in the world, which it sure looks like they have the potential to do. Just putting this out there for all us Daniela Maniacs to ponder.

You know, I have a brother named Benji, and he never agrees with me, either! I last saw Daniela and Aga in their US Open semi loss to Huber/Raymond. On several occasions, I saw both of them smile after saying something to each other between points. Of course they're focused during actual play, or they wouldn't be successful at all. But why take my word for it. Daniela's Quebec City blog 9/12: "We play doubles to have fun, and when the good results come it's a nice plus. We don't put any pressure on each other." I'm not being critical of Dani at all here; I like this attitude. Maybe it's a hidden key to their success. Let's Go, Daniela! And Aga!