Daniela Hantuchová (born April 23, 1983 in Poprad,
Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia) is a Slovak
professional tennis player.
She is currently working with a number of coaches
who work out of the Sánchez-Casal Academy, primarily
Ángel Giménez and occasionally with Eduardo Nicolás.
Her WTA Tour mentor in the "Partners for Success"
program was Martina Navratilova, who was her doubles
partner for a brief period in early 2005. On 25
February 2008, Hantuchová was ranked World No. 7 in
singles, her highest ranking since reaching World
No. 5 in 2003.
Hantuchova's tour debut and early results were
auspicious. Her performance temporarily crumbled, as
a result of the divorce of her parents in 2003. For
example, despite being seeded 9th in the Wimbledon
Championships that year, she lost the match against
the 81st ranked player in the world, failing to
convert match points and weeping on court. She lost
weight and was suspected to be anorexic then.
Hantuchova speaks six languages and was trained as a
classical pianist. She is thought to be a
perfectionist and places a lot of pressure on
herself during her training. She qualified for top
university in Slovakia but deferred it to pursue
tennis. Her comeback among the world's best was in
the March of 2007 when she won the Indian Wells
Masters singles title again.
Hantuchova's game is built around natural timing.
She is able to produce "effortless" power from her
flowing groundstrokes and possesses a superb
down-the-line forehand and backhand. She possesses a
heavy serve and has a particularly effective "kick"
second serve. Her volleys are very well-produced and
often have the deftest of touch. A weakness of
Hantuchova since she emerged from the juniors was
her lack of explosive movement around the court. In
recent years, however, this aspect of her tennis has
been vastly improved.
