photo courtesy from Nick
Daniela Hantuchová (pronounced [?dan?j?la ??antux?va?], roughly HAHN-too-hoh-vah; born April 23, 1983 in Poprad, Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia) is a Slovak professional tennis player.
She is currently coached by Albert Portas.[2] 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. As of April 6, 2009, Hantuchová is ranked World No. 43 in singles.
Hantuchová has won three WTA singles tournaments in her career, the first in 2002 at the Tier I Pacific Life Open, defeating Martina Hingis 6–3 6–4 in the final, and in 2007 at the same tournament, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 6–3 6–4 ending a five-year title drought. Her most recent title came at the Generali Ladies Linz in Austria, where she defeated Patty Schnyder 6–4, 6–2 in the final.
She has reached six other finals in her career — Filderstadt 2002 losing to Kim Clijsters, Eastbourne 2004 losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova, Los Angeles 2005 where she lost to Clijsters again, the 2006 Zurich Open losing to Maria Sharapova, in Bali 2007 losing to Lindsay Davenport and Luxembourg 2007 to Ana Ivanovi?.
She has also achieved reasonable results in the Grand Slam events. Her career-best is a semifinal appearance at the 2008 Australian Open. As well as this, she has reached three other Grand Slam quarterfinals: at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2002 and the Australian Open in 2003. The semifinal, against Ana Ivanovic, was seen as a controversial match, where Ivanovi? was heard to be squeaking her trainers on the court before Hantuchová's serve, a claim Ivanovi? disputes. The score ended 0–6 6–3 6–4 - after Hantuchová won the first eight games.