Daniela Hantuchova and Sofia Arvidsson collects BNP Paribas Heart Awards – Tennis News
World number 20, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, and the Swedish tennis icon, Sofia Arvidsson, were honoured with the BNP Paribas Heart Awards during the draw ceremony of the Federation Cup play-off ties. The matches will take
place in Marbella and Boras from Saturday. Slovakian squad will take on the Spanish team whereas the Swede players will lock horns with the group of Great Britain representatives.
Fans chose the four heart award winners through voting on the official website of Federation Cup, FedCup.com. 10,000 fans recorded their votes and the mentioned two players along with the Colombian booming star, Catalina Castano,
and the reigning French Open champion, Li Na, were the four pick of the players that received highest votes.
Winner of the vote count, Daniela Hantuchova, was awarded with the cheque of $6,000. Hantuchova donated the prize to children's ward of her hometown hospital in Poprad and stated, “It’s something very special to me. Awards like
this mean more than any trophy I have because it’s for the fans and that’s what you play tennis for. Because the match was played in Slovakia, the cheque is going to my home city where I was born in Poprad to the hospital for the kids department.”
The second most voted player, Arvidsson, was handed over a cheque of $1,000and she also donated the money to the cancer charity organization, Barncancer Fonden. During a follow-up press-conference, she said, “It means a lot; one
of my first awards and a great honour. I should share it with my team because they made me play well and I had so much fun playing Fed Cup. I really like it. The cheque is for research for kids with cancer.”
Slovakian squad is hot favourite to win the contest with some eye-startling players in their squad. On top of the list is the finalist of the Barcelona Ladies Open 2012, Dominika Cibulkova, and the reigning champion of Pattaya
Open, Daniela Hantuchova. However, the Spanish squad is capable of pulling an upset with their 65th ranked player, Silvia Soler-Espinosa, leading the show. It will be a one-sided contest until some miraculous performances are seen from the Spaniards.
Swedish team will have to face a tough tie against the versatile British squad. The likes of Heather Watson and Laura Robson can make life difficult for the Swede squad in the doubles category and Elena Baltacha backed by Anne
Keothavong will look to win their singles rubbers matches as well.
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