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exclusive
THE tennisreporters.net
NEWSLETTER: WEDNESDAY, september 1, No. 98
Hantuchova: Weight loss was due to parents'
separation
Slovak upsets Molik; gaining confidence
again
Daniela: "It was very difficult and very hard but I'm over
it now"
By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net
Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA |
| Daniela Hantuchova told TennisReporters.net
that her parents' separation was the main reason in her weight
loss. |
FROM THEN US OPEN – There
are your run of the mill daughters and then there are those who
go out of their way to protect their parents, sacrificing their
own reputations in the process. Daniela Hantuchova represents
the latter and, for the past year-and-a-half, has been under tremendous
scrutiny for her rapid weight loss in 2003, with many accusing
her of being anorexic.
Hantuchova withstood accusations that all she cared was how good
she looked, which is why she dropped all the weight. All the while,
she was stressing out because her parents – Igor and Marianna
– got separated last year. Her weight loss, and subsequent
loss of confidence in herself and consequently her career, was
a standard 20-year-old's reaction to having the two most important
people in her life break the nest in half.
"That was the main reason," Hantuchova
told TennisReporters.net.
Hantuchova is not comfortable talking about
the subject. Even though she could eliminated the speculation for
the reasons for her weight loss by saying that she was under tremendous
emotional stress due to her parents' conflict, she kept mum on the
subject. Consequently, she endured hours upon hours of questions
about her eating habits and read article after article which said
that the reason why she dropped from No. 5 at the beginning of last
year to No. 19 at year's end (suffering some shocking early-round
losses on the way) was primarily because she was too thin –
not because she was choking winnable matches due to the loss of
control of her emotions. But she didn't, because she wanted to protect
her parents' privacy.
"I didn't want to put my family into
an area where they were being talked about," she said. "I
wouldn't be that stupid to talk about that to the press so that
they would be ridiculed."
While Hantuchova accomplished what she set out to do in protecting
her parents, she also damaged her own reputation as well as her
own health in the process. She wasn't eating enough because her
stomach was too upset to take down the proper amount of food. She
lost her strength and power on her shots and was called a choker.
stayed a loyal daughter
But the whole time, she was being as
loyal of a daughter as she could be and withstood the storm of
criticism without leaving the tour to personally recover. She
stood up, took the blows and is now a stronger person because
of it.
"It was very difficult and very hard but I'm over it now,"
said Hantuchova, who added that her relationship with both her
parents is good. "But I would appreciate if the media didn't
ask me about it anymore."
On Wednesday at the US Open, the 32nd-ranked Hantuchova scored
her biggest Grand Slam win of the year by upsetting No. 17 Alicia
Molik of Australia 6-4, 6-3. That win came after Hantuchova's
perilous first-round victory, where she had to go to great depths
to knock off the obscure Camille Pim 9-7 in the third-set tiebreak.
For a while, it looked like the former Top-5 player would gag
again against a lesser opponent. Her coach, Nigel Sears, was so
distraught, that he left the court.
Mark Lyons ©2003 |
| Hantuchova plays Stanford in 2003. |
"It was such a relief because I've
been in that situation so many times before where I gave the match
to the opponent" she said. "I found a way to get back
and then lost in the end. Now I'm starting to win these matches."
FITTER … and heavier
Finding the confidence again that
brought her to three Grand Slam quarterfinals will likely take
the Slovak another six months or so. But she's not only put back
on the weight she lost, she actually weighs more than she did
before the incident and is in far better shape. She's always had
the weapons and the on-court smarts to be a Slam winner, but so
much of winning on the elite level is mental. Hantuchova said
after she managed to avoid choking against Pin, that's she's a
new woman.
"That first match was so important because I appreciated
so much that I was still in the tournament," she said. "It
will make me stronger. It gave me a second life. Against Molik,
I felt free and relaxed. I knew I was the underdog and no one
expected me to win. I play my best when there are no expectations.
That's how I should approach every match. I put a lot of pressure
on her and didn't give her a second chance. I need to go for shots
because the only way I can get back is to go for it."
In the next round, Hantuchova faces 15th-seed Patty Schnyder,
who beat her at the Olympics. Should she get by that match, Serena
Williams will likely be waiting in the fourth round. She can play
with both those competitors if she's feeling strong inside. Now
that the proverbial cat is out of the bag about the reason for
Hantuchova's struggles, maybe she'll be able to keep her mind
on the court and be the player she knows she can be.
"I don't care about rankings … it's how I play technically
and how I am on court mentally," she said. "If I focus
like I did today, then the old form will come back."
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