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Daniela Hantuchova plans to use the Bali Classic as a springboard back into tennis's top 10 after injury interrupted one of the best seasons of her career.

The top-seeded Slovak, who finished runner-up last year to Lindsay Davenport here, reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open in January, and followed that up with three consecutive quarter-finals in Paris, Antwerp and Indian Wells.

Just as she was building momentum and form she was struck down by a stress fracture in her right heel, causing her to miss almost the entire claycourt season.

"Missing the clay courts wasn't so tough, but Wimbledon I was concerned about," she said in Bali.

"I just couldn't imagine myself skipping Wimbledon. The disappointing thing is that at the beginning of the season I felt I was right there. I was playing the tennis I always wanted to play, so that was tough."

She admitted this week that she really needed around five months to recover her fitness, and not the 10 weeks she allowed herself.

The result of that early comeback was that she lost in the second round of Wimbledon to Alisa Kleybanova, and further disappointment followed as she won just two of her next seven matches, a period that included an opening round defeat by lowly Anna-Lena Groenefeld at the US Open.

"Maybe I started back too early, but it was so tough to be away," she said.

"At first I enjoyed having free time and for the first time in my life I could spend time with my friends and family and do things I wanted to do.

"But then I just missed it so much. I enjoyed being a normal person for a while, but then I had the feeling so badly that I wanted to be on the court again."

Hantuchova made good use of her enforced break from the game, going where she wanted to go instead of where the tennis tour dictated.

"I travelled to places I wanted to visit," she said. "I went to Tuscany. It was just having the freedom. You wake up and don't have to think about having to go to the court to practise. All I had to worry about was the rehab. Apart from that I could do whatever I wanted to do.

"But I was taking the rehab really seriously and I think that's why I was able to recover pretty fast. The doctors were pretty tough with me and said I have to do it the right way or it's going to take even longer."

Reuters