What for Daniela?

By Naomi C

            A career first singles title in Indian Wells, two grand slam quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the US Open, a finalist performance in Filderstadt, a position in the elite field for the season ending championships, a first Federation Cup title for Slovakia, victories over the likes of Henin-Hardenne, Mauresmo, Dokic, and Dementieva, and a season ending ranking of number 8. That is how 2002 went for the wonder girl from Slovakia.  Season 2003 also brought highlights for Daniela, a first Australian Open quarterfinal and a semi final performance in Antwerp and a consequential career best ranking of number 5, the first Slovakian woman to achieve such an attainment. However, the grand slam quarter final finish and tier 2 semi final and high ranking all occurred within the first two months of the season. From there Daniela was unable to make another semi final and eventually finished the year outside the top 10 at number 19. 

            Daniela has since parted with her coach of two seasons Briton Nigel Sears and is now working with Harold Solomon. Will Solomon be able to revitalise Daniela’s diminishing confidence levels? One hopes so. Daniela has the game, no one can deny that. However, season 2003 saw Daniela struggling with confidence and doubting her ability in matches.

            Daniela will begin her season that same as she did last year in Perth, Australia for the annual mixed teams event, the Hopman Cup. This season she will team with Karol Kucera to represent the Slovak Republic. They have been drawn in group B and face two particularly tough opponents in 2^nd seeds Australia and 3^rd seeds Belgium.  If Daniela brings her top game to the match, she should be able to revert last times result in which she was defeated by Molik, a result that occurred again in Miami. The Slovak Republic will open their campaign against Belgium, and for Daniela a match with the world number 2 Kim Clijsters, a player who convincingly defeated her twice last year. The match will be tough for Daniela, but again if she plays like she can and has confidence in her convictions and ability can do plenty of damage and revers the prior results. A incredibly tough match to start the season though. The Slovakian team’s third opponent will be the qualifying team of Hungary or Canada.

            Daniela’s first WTA tournament for the year will be the Adidas International in Sydney where Daniela was a quarterfinalist a year ago. A year ago she was also seeded, this time around though she will not enjoy such a luxury and so could run into a top 10 player very early in the tournament. Playing without a seeding is something Daniela is going to have to get used to for at least the early part of the season. Sydney as always possesses an incredibly difficult field with the likes of Henin-Hardenne, Clijsters, Davenport, Mauresmo, Sugiyama, Dementieva, Rubin and Myskina all electing to prepare for the season’s first grand slam in Sydney.

            Daniela will arrive in Melbourne as a defending quarter finalist and so facing a large points defence. In total Daniela has 268 points to defend in the Victorian capital, by far her largest defence of the year. Hopefully, arrival in familiar surroundings which possess happy memories for the 20 year old will spark a confident showing in the first slam of the year. However, if Daniela is unable to defend her strong showing of 2003 she may do the unthinkable and fall out of the top 20 rankings. On the doubles court Daniela will partner Belgian Els Callens in Australian Open 2004. 

            From Melbourne, Daniela will head to Tokyo for the first time in her career and from there to Paris for the Open Gaz De France and then onto the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp. Undoubtedly a tough, rigorous and demanding early season schedule which does not permit a rest till after Antwerp. Daniela may be making a conscious effort to raise her ranking to where it should be early in the season, but hopefully it won’t show any adverse effects physically or fatigue wise. 

            Daniela is undoubtedly one of the talented players on the tour and has the capability to rise back into the top 10. However, the journey back to the elite 10 is not going to be easy. Russian players Nadia Petrova, Vera Zvonareva and young gun Maria Sharapova will all be aiming there as well. Venus Williams will be keen to get her name back to the top where it belongs, and Jelena Dokic is keen to make it back to the top 10. Elena Dementieva, Anastasia Myskina and Ai Sugiyama all of whom finished 2003 with a top 10 ranking are undoubtedly stronger and more confident than they were when Daniela first entered the top 10 in late 2002. Another statistic which Daniela will have to overcome is her current record against the very elite of the current game.  Daniela has twice defeated current number 1 Henin-Hardenne however; one cannot deny the immense improvements the Belgian has made to her power game since then.  In 4 matches Daniela has yet to defeat Kim Clijsters, in 5 matches with Venus and 2 with Serena Daniela has left empty handed, Daniela is also 0-2 against both Capriati and Davenport, and has losing head to head records with Dementieva (2-5), Myskina (0-2), Sugiyama (0-1) and Mauresmo (1-2). In fact of the current top 10 players Daniela only leads her head to head record with one of them Rubin (1-0) and is tied with Henin-Hardenne (2-2). An area which Solomon will undoubtedly have to address.

            Early 2004 will see Daniela facing point defences and attempting to maintain her ranking. However, past the first few months Daniela will have little to defend and be able to launch her attack and raid back up the rankings! Daniela has the talent and ability to claim a permanent position among the top 10 in 2004 and make it far in a grand slam event once again, hopefully Solomon can assist her in developing the confidence she lacked last season, for it is confidence which binds her talent and ability into a top 10 player and gives her the grace of her convictions to go out on court and do as she knows she can.