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Slovak Star Sets Sights on Dubai Tennis Championships

DUBAI - Daniela Hantuchova will be hoping that a successful run at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships next month will help restore her to the top of the game.

The Slovak star, who has appeared in the glossy pages of Vogue amongst countless other fashion and glamour magazines, is still going strong after more than a decade on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. The height of her career was when she reached World Number 5 in both singles and doubles. However, since 2007 Hantuchova has failed to end the season ranked in the top 10.

In 2008, she reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, however shortly after she had to withdraw from the Dubai Women’s Open with illness. That was the first time she missed the $2 million event since her debut in 2005, when she fell to Serena Williams in the quarter-finals. Hantuchova also had the misfortune of coming up against a highly-ranked opponent in 2006, beaten in the second round by Svetlana Kuznetsova. In 2007 she reached the quarter-finals once again before losing to former world number one Amelie Mauresmo, and in 2009 she conceded her third round match in three sets to eventual finalist Virginie Razzano.

Although the Slovakian failed to reach a final in 2009, she enjoyed a successful season in reaching the semifinals at Warsaw, in addition to an impressive tally of six quarter-finals. Several of Hantuchova’s defeats came against top opposition, with defeat against eventual champion Caroline Wozniacki in Ponte Vedra Beach. Dinara Safina outlasted her in three sets at s’Hertogenbosch before Elena Dementieva got the better of her in Stanford. It took Serena Williams to halt her runs at both Wimbledon and the US Open.