It makes a good read.

Some of it may be familiar territory for Hantuchova fans (her rise to prominence, the resultant slump, the flap over her thinness, and her recent resurgence) but it's insightful for all that. She herself offers up some sharp observations.

I didn't realise she was such a polyglot!

A good in-depth interview!

One of the things that infuriates me about critics of Daniela's mental resilience is that she has been accused of being choker. All that she does do is sometimes think too much about what she is doing. It is the price that people with a brain often pay. She is also a perfectionist, and often is her own harshest critic. This is why in the past she can lose matches 6-4 6-7 1-6, and once again get accused of crumbling in a match, as she loses the initiative. An unfair, inaccurate accusation.

I am a big fan of both her and her game. I had already known a lot of the stuff in the interview about her already, and it all fits in so well with the sort of player that appeals to me. She is articulate with strong, well-thought through opinions, and is grounded and balanced in a wonderful way.

In terms of her tennis, well, I'm a big fan of the smart touch players with good all-round games, and she definitely falls into that category. Interesting that she holds Martina Hingis in such high esteem too, another player with fabulous courtcraft. I think that as a person, there is a little more to Dani though, which is not meant to reflect bad on Martina at all, as I think that she gets a rough deal for some of the things that she said when she was a 16(!) year old, or boyfriends etc.

Finally, I am glad that Dani was dismissive about the eating disorder nonsense. True, she did become very thin, but I can speak from experience here, in that I used to be very thin too (not so much now at all!) and people used to give me a hard time about it, convinced that I had an issue. But some people are just built differently, and I'd heard about Dani's previous coaches talking about how much time she put in at gymns, how dedicated she was to fitness/ strength aspects, which is soemthing that you just cannot do if you have an eatin disorder. She is definitely the sort of person who just isn't able to bulk up through working out. Some people are just like that! And in terms of general build, she has gained some weight naturally, just like I did!

Anyway, thanks for posting the article. Was a nice reminder of why like her as both a person and a player :)

I knew she was a clever girl from reading ACE

She's got quite a taste in those hotpants too... :P roflmao

Indeed. Hantuchova even concedes that susceptibility herself, when she says 'Sometimes if I have time and a big shot to hit, I think too much about whether to go for a short angle, a hard shot down the line, or whatever, you know. I just need to be a little smarter. Play the right shots at the right time.'

It reminds me of Mauresmo (another player often slated for not withstanding pressure well), who said much the same thing when an interviewer was praising her for the variety of her game. She said in a way that variety can be a weakness at critical moments, since intead of just falling back on a reliable go-to shot as usual, the indecision of too many available options can be crippling. Puts a different spin on looking at the matter (so to speak!).

I do think thinking too much about what you are doing is a form of choking though - if you didn't think much to get yourself into a good position why change?

The thing is with Dani, she is quite intellectual. She reminds a bit of James Blake mentally. Yes she can choke but also she has so many aspects to her tennis related or not, she's just a very complicated person.

She's apparently a trained classical pianist to quite a high standard, she's never been 100% tennis, at least mentally imo. She definitely has a top ten game though. It's good to have her back :)

We're talking about having a choice of shots to make, and because a player thinks about that, then sometimes they can come across as 'choking' (a word that I shall use through gritted teeth as I detest it).

Suffering from nerves can come about through thinking too much. This can be interpreted as 'choking'.

But thinking too much about your game regardless of whether you're ahead or behind, pressure/ non presure situations is a different kettle of fish.

It's just that if a player is perceived to be in a position to 'choke' then it is interpreted as 'choking', even if they suffer from indecision borne out of having a choice of shots to play at any time of a match.

This is where I think that she comes from. She doesn't strike me as the type to suffer from nerves (i.e. that annoying 'choking' label)