Dates: October 7-13, 2012
Venue: Linz, Austria
Tier: International
Prize Money: $235,000
Surface: Hard/Indoors
Tournament Director: Michael Reichel

Official website: www.generali-ladies.at


Last appearance: 2012 1st round. Lost to Julia Goerges 6-4 7-6
Champion in 2007.

Singles:
1R: Karin Knapp (ITA) bt [8] Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 7-6(6)

Knapp vs Hantuchova(7)

Knapp has had a break-through year so I think could be a banana skin, I think Daniela should get through in 3 sets..

Non committal on this pairing. Daniela has lost 1st rounders to the Knapps of the circuit enough times in the past; it could truly go either way. But I'm not chewing my fingernails off worrying about Sofia. I looked at their site a couple of nights ago and saw it showing Daniela's picture every 20 seconds leading to an article where she says Sofia reminds her of Brataslava. They clearly want her there; they know she sells a lot more than Safarova or Cornet. $$$ talks; they'll find a way (and I know both wild cards are already handed out).

Voegele beat Zakopalova so she's the second round opponent for Daniela if she beats Knapp. Daniela's not scheduled for tomorrow so she's not playing until Wednesday. The revision of the draw hasn't had that much of an impact as Voegele was the likely second round opponent in the original draw and she'll be the second round opponent in the revised draw, assuming Daniela beats Knapp. I feel Zakopalova would be a trickier opponent than Voegele or Moser and she's just behind Daniela in the rankings so it's good she's out, at the same time Voegele's had a fairly decent year. A good run here will enable Daniela to put some distance between her and the players below her, but she has to focus on getting past Knapp.

If anyone wants an explanation of the draw revision:


The tournament conducted the draw on Saturday, with No. 12 Stephens as the No. 1 seed and Ivanovic the No. 2 seed. On Sunday, the tournament announced it had given a wildcard to tenth-ranked Kerber. Though Kerber had seemingly used up her allotment of international-level tournaments when she played the Citi Open over the summer (top-10 players are permitted one International in each half of the season), that tournament wasn’t held against her because of an exception that permits top players to play down to an international-level event if a premier tournament being held at the same time is oversubscribed. Kerber had initially wanted to play the Southern California Open in Carlsbad, Calif., but that tournament already had too many top-10 players so she was allowed to play the Citi Open instead.

Confused? It gets worse.

So how did the tournament have room in the draw for its new top seed? Someone had to pull out to make room for Kerber. Rather conveniently, Lisa-Maria Moser, a 22-year old Austrian ranked No. 337, pulled out of the tournament on Sunday citing “personal reasons”. Based on the tournament’s own statement on its website, it seems that the tournament asked her to give up her wild card in order to make room for Kerber.

Everything that happened is all well within the WTA rules, and the whole series of events was a perfect storm that had everyone digging through the WTA rulebook. But a tournament asking a low-ranked wildcard entrant to give back her wildcard in favor of a top player still leaves a bad taste.

Rule$$$$$$$$$ are meant to be broken, guys. This does nothing to change my view of Daniela getting into Sofia.
Any thoughts on Dani not playing doubles in Linz? I'm certainly OK with it. Her pairing with Raymond has some intriguing possibilities. But, with Raymond having won at least one doubles title every year since 1993, and this looks like the year she'll have that streak broken, shouldn't we consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Raymond is washed up?

Vesnina has chosen Sofia over Fed Cup, don't blame her, as she would only have played in the doubles.

That is not good news for Daniela's chances of Sofia, as there are also talks of Pavlyuchenkova chosing Sofia too, as Kirilenko and Kuznetsova are the likely singles players.

Luxembourg and Moscow are even more important now.

I'm getting worried...I SO want Daniela at Sofia.

As for Linz, I'm not impressed they have shoved Daniela (a former champion and seeded player) on Court 2...at least they have a stream for both courts...

Looking back at 2007 when Daniela won Linz to qualify by right into the YEC was such an awesome achievement. Let's hope those feelings come back and help her when she starts her 2013 Linz campaign..

So disappointing..couldn't see the match but Moscow is now crucial..