Daniela Hantuchova leaves Sofia with two close losses – Tennis News
World number 32, Daniela Hantuchova, lost all her Round Robin matches at the Qatar Airways Tournament of Champions in Sofia. However, the record doesn’t tell the whole story because the Slovak superstar was just a whisker away
from making it to the semi-finals. She lost two matches deep in the third set which was quite harsh on someone who fought so well throughout the contest but left barehanded.
The 29-year-old Slovak began her campaign in Sofia against the 16th ranked Italian age-fellow, Roberta Vinci; lost the match in straight sets. It was a very dismal start but she had an opportunity to make it to the semi-finals
with two successive wins in the following matches. Up next for the former world number five was the 11th ranked Dane star, Caroline Wozniacki, who was the top seed player in the contest. She won the opening set 6-3 and battled extremely hard throughout
the second set to set up the tie-breaker round.
Hantuchova was very close on registering the most emphatic win of the tournament but squandered an opportunity to place the ball at a volley and that point turned around the whole set in favour of the 22-year-old Dane, who clasped
the second set tie-break and took an early breakthrough in the final set to win it with a touching difference.
At the end of that match, the Slovak said, “Obviously I'm very disappointed because I had so many chances, and the match was in my hands - just one point here or there decided the match," Hantuchova said. "It was a great match
and we were both fighting really hard, but sometimes you just have to accept that you're trying your best and trying everything you can, but in the end the result might not go your way. We both really wanted to win - I knew I had to win to have a chance to
make the semi-finals. Unfortunately it just didn't work out for me today.”
On Friday, the Slovak locked horns against the Taiwanese star, Su-Wei Hsieh, and bounced back a set down to level it 1-1 with a bagel to her name. However, another early serve loss forced Hantuchova to leave the arena without any
victory to her name. It was harsh on the 32nd ranked Slovak who could have turned around two matches in her favour. It will definitely hurt for quite some time especially in the season break.
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