by Luke Buttigieg
Sunday, 21 January, 2007
Slovakian No.15 seed Daniela Hantuchova has staged a brilliant fightback to
book her place in the fourth round at Australian Open 2007, rallying from a
set and two breaks down to beat unseeded American Ashley Harkleroad.
Hantuchova looked set to join Meng Yuan of China and German No.17 seed
Anna-Lena Groenefeld in bowing out to Harkleroad in straight sets but the
23-year-old recovered superbly to ease to a 6-7(6) 7-5 6-3 win in 167 minutes.
Bidding to return to the world's top 50 after finishing the 2006 season at
No.86, Harkleroad looked well on the way to a fourth-round meeting with Belgian
No.4 seed Kim Clijsters when she was 4-0 up in the second set.
But Hantuchova, whose best previous finish at the year's opening Grand Slam was
a quarterfinal appearance in 2003, lifted a gear, taking the second set with
a break in the 12th game and it was suddenly Harkleroad on the back foot.
And after reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open, French Open and
Wimbledon - as well as the round of 64 at the US Open - in 2006, Hantuchova
went on to eventually prevail.
Hantuchova will need to produce a consistent display to get past Clijsters
though, having never beaten the 2004 Australian Open finalist in their eight
career meetings. In fact, Hantuchova has only taken a set off Clijsters once,
in the 2002 Filderstadt final.
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