Daniela Hantuhova (photo below) is a famous Slovak tennis player. Winner of sixteen WTA competitions (7 in singles and 9 in pairs). Finalist of the Grand Slam tournament. Semi-finalist of the Australian Championship (2008). This article will describe a brief biography of the athlete.
general information
Daniela was born in the city of Poprad (Czechoslovakia) in 1983. Her mother Marianne worked as a toxicologist, and father Igor worked as a computer specialist. The girl also has an older brother, who now works as an architect in Bratislava.
Hantuhova is fluent in three languages (German, English, Slovak) and plays the classical piano well. The girl does not spare herself in training, as she is a perfectionist.
2001-2002
She began her professional career at the age of 15. In 2001, the girl fell on the 37th line in the world ranking. And in 2002 she already performed at the Australian Championship. The athlete managed to get to the third round, where she lost to Venus Williams.
2003-2004
At the beginning of the season, Daniela Hantuhova was able to break into the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam. Here, the athlete again met with Venus and again lost to her. Nevertheless, according to the results of the season, the tennis player took the fifth line of the WTA rating, which was the highest achievement in her career.
After that, Daniela began a black streak. The girl’s parents divorced, and she was very worried about this. Hantuhova lost a lot of weight, and many journalists began to suspect her of anorexia.
Naturally, all this affected the game results. At Wimbledon, Daniela lost to Japanese Shinobu Asago, who was in 81st place in the rating. After the match, Khantuhova burst into tears. At the end of the year, she dropped to the 19th line in the ranking table.
In 2004, the gaming crisis only worsened. When Daniela's points for last year's “Australian Open” burned out, she flew out of the thirty strongest. And by the end of summer, the tennis player left the top 50.
2005-2006
In the new season, Daniela Hantuhova got together and overcame the recession. Three semi-finals, six quarter-finals and a final in Los Angeles appeared in the sportswoman’s asset, where the tennis player defeated Kim Kleisters. And at the end of the year, Daniela was able to return to the top 20 ranking.
In 2006, at the Australian Open, Hantuhova was able to beat Serena Williams herself. But in the eighth finals, the athlete lost to Maria Sharapova. Daniela also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and Roland Garros.
2007
This season has become one of the best in the career of an athlete. Hantuhova finally managed to remove the "curse of the finals." This happened at a memorial tournament in Indian Wells. Then Daniela got to one-eighth of Wimbledon and Roland Garros. Well, at the end of the year she reached the final three times - in Linz, Luxembourg and Bali. In the first of them, the athlete won the title. Such impressive successes allowed the girl to return to the top ten strongest tennis players on the planet.
2008-2009
In 2008, Daniela Hantuhova showed the best career result in Grand Slam competitions. The athlete made it to the finals, where in a bitter struggle, she lost to Ana Ivanovich. After that, Khantuhova took the eighth line of the world ranking. Then, the tennis player’s career began to decline, and at the end of the season the girl was outside the top 20.
In the first half of 2009, the Slovak athlete performed even more unsuccessfully, sliding down to the 43rd line of the rating. But then Khantuhova got in shape, reached the fourth round of US Open and climbed to 24th place.
2010-2016
Over the past six years, Khantuhova’s career has been declining. If in 2011 she could concede in four meetings in a row, then in 2016 this indicator grew to eleven. And out of the last twenty matches, the tennis player was able to win only four.
Personal life
This is what Daniela Hantuhova does not like to talk about. The personal life of a tennis player is a taboo for the public. Nevertheless, some information about this was leaked to the media. Such material was the photo of Daniela with her physiotherapist Marco Panichi, who is a couple of decades older than the athlete. In the pictures, they walked arm in arm through the streets of Bratislava on Christmas Eve. Hantuhova refused to comment on these photos, but Panichi admitted that they love each other and are happy. However, the couple soon broke up. Now about the personal life of the heroine of this article, nothing is known.
Play style
Daniela Hantuhova, whose biography is presented above, uses deep flat punches. But in general, her playing style can be described as aggressive. The athlete has an excellent variable pitch, a reliable backhand and a powerful blow to the right. Hantuhova has a decent rally game and feels confident at the net. The weaknesses of the tennis player are speed, poor mobility and psychological instability (because of her, Daniela lost a lot of matches).
Since the athlete acts in an attacking style, quick coatings: grass and hard are more preferable for her. Hantuhova does not like the slow soil. And this is confirmed by her playing practice: the athlete played all the finals on the grass and hard. And the best achievement of Daniela on clay courts is the semifinal.