Daniela Hantuchová (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈdanɪjɛla ˈɦantuxɔvaː]; born April 23, 1983) is a Slovak professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first Tier I tournament and ended the year in the top ten.She is currently coached by Larri Passos.Her WTA Tour mentor in the "Partners for Success" program was Martina Navrátilová, who was her doubles partner for a brief period in early 2005. As of November 8, 2010, Hantuchová is ranked World No. 30 in singles.
Hantuchová was born in Poprad, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) to father Igor, a computer scientist and mother Marianna, a toxicologist.
When her parents split up in 2003, Hantuchová's performances temporarily worsened. At Wimbledon that year, failing to convert match points and weeping on court.She also suffered from a weight problem during this period. She was suspected of being anorexic, however Hantuchová denied this.
Hantuchová speaks three languages (Slovak, English and German), and was trained as a classical pianist. She is thought to be a perfectionist and puts a lot of pressure on herself during her training.She qualified for university in Slovakia but deferred it to pursue tennis.
She appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition alongside Maria Kirilenko and Tatiana Golovin in a pictoral entitled Volley of the Dolls
Hantuchová can be characterized as an aggressive all-arounder, with the use of "effortless" power and long fluid strokes. Her strengths within her game are definitely seen as her serve, backhand, forehand and ability to hit volleys with the deftest of touch.[23] Weaknesses of Hantuchová's game are her movement around the court, which has improved within the last couple of years, and her mental fragility - this has been a factor in many matches in her career, from her second round losses at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2003 to her 2004 final in Eastbourne, to the 2008 Australian Open semi-final and her fourth round match at the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open to name but a few.
