Oh, Dani Girl . . .

There was no shortage of Irish men and women - honorary as well as authentic - scattered around in the big bowl of the main stadium at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, like so many green M&Ms.But the luck for which the Irish are famous was showered on someone no less likely than a thin young woman from Slovakia (no, it’s not one of the counties) who was dressed like a daffodil, not a shamrock. That was Daniela Hantuchova – Dani Girl, aka Stick – and lordee, did she need ever bit of it.

It’s been five years since she last won the title here. Wait. It’s been five years since she won a title anywhere. And it hasn’t exactly been an easy five years since she made that spectacular breakthrough, at age 18. There were all those rumors about emotional turmoil, and that weight thing that got so bad that at one point you half expected that Dani would expatriate to Brazil to become a runway model. There was that bizarre, big-belted, Echoes of Ancient Rome outfit she once traipsed around in on the floor of Arthur Ashe stadium.

Then there were all those blown opportunities: she made four finals since she won here at the Pacific Life Open in 2002, and the best thing you could say about them was that at least she lost to quality opponents each time: Kuznetsova, Dementieva, Sharapova, and Clijsters. Largely, though, her career MO has been, fight, fight, fight, choke, choke, choke, fight, fight, fight. . . The truth is that soon after making her big statement here in 2002, she got busy becoming a cautionary tale, although the details of that tale were never really made public.

So maybe it’s no wonder this girl isn’t all the eager to discuss her psychological transformation. Here’s a telling excerpt on that subject from her post-match presser.

Q. When you turn your back between points and do your ritual of doing some bouncing, reflecting, what is your self-talk to yourself, what is?

A: I think it's a self-talk with myself, so I don't think I have to share it with anyone else.  I guess, everyone does different things, how to be in the best way ready for the next point.

Q: Have you worked with James Loehr?

A:  Yes.

Q.  Is that something you picked up from Jim?
A: Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  It's great guy.

Q. Watching you play against Peer, I kind of had the feeling that you have this little mantra that you go through after points. A point, finishing, your feet behind the baseline, faced the other direction from the net –

A:  Once I'm on the court, I don't really think about what I'm doing between the points.  I just care about what I'm doing when the point has started.

Q. I'm mistaken then, you don't have any little ritual you go through?

A:  Not really.  I just try to get myself in the best shape possible for the next point.

Sheesh, Dani, sorry we asked! Still, this kind of coy stonewalling is irritating, less because I’m dying to shine the high beams into the crevices of Dani’s mind than because it’s haughty and a mite arrogant. It’s not like the world doesn’t know that she has struggled under the strain of competition, and players who have put up far bigger wins (Kuznetsova, who’s made her own life and struggles more or less an open book, among them) have been more forthcoming about the process that finally got them over the hump.

This is one of the reasons I never found Hantuchova particularly interesting; why read a book with all the good passages excised? I don't mean private stuff, either. I mean nuts and bolts, this is who I am, this is how I think stuff. More importantly, it smacks of a kind of defensiveness that probably isn’t in anyone’s best interest, including Dani’s. Which brings us back to the larger issue looming over this win: just how big a win was it, given the depleted field?  As good as you could have expected: Hantuchova hammered Martina Hingis, and beat one of the only two Grand Slam event winners who were seeded here. The other one, Maria Sharapova, was taken out in the prelims. It was an interesting match-up, physically: Sveta clearly hasn't missed too many meals lately, while Dani still looks like she hasn't had enough. You know women's tennis: a game of extremes.

Hantuchova didn’t choke today. She played a solid, tight, nerve-free match against Kuznetsova, closing her out decisively, 6-3, 6-4. I decided to give it one more shot on the psychology angle later in the presser, asking her to name the biggest psychological difference in her perception of herself or her game these days. She said:

I learned not to try -- I mean, of course you always want to be perfect, but if you're not perfect all the time.  It's okay.  And I realized that, you know, there are always going to be some difficult times that you have to get through.  But as long as you enjoy what you're doing, I think that's the most important thing.

So there you have it, once again: perfection is the quest that leads a player to transcend the pack and become a successful pro, at which point the quest for perfection becomes a lethal obstacle to achieving the highest of goals. It haunts and taunts a player who isn’t willing to roll with the punches of fate and recognize that, at the end of the day, it’s not about perfection at all – it’s just about beating the person on the other side of the net. Just pray that the person on the other side isn’t named Serena Williams or Justine Henin.

Still, it was a great day for Dani Girl. A great day for the Irish!