Melbourne: A refusal to dwell on tiny mistakes vaulted Daniela Hantuchova into her first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open, the ninth-seeded Slovak said.
Hantuchova, a former quarter-finalist at Wimbledon, the US Open and here, made the final four for the first time with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Pole Agnieszka Radwanska on Wednesday.
"I think I realised that it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay to not always play my best tennis," the 24-year-old said.
"I would just get too hard on myself and was not able to forgive myself any mistakes," she added of her past attitude.
"I always wanted to have everything perfect. Yeah, I just realised that, you know, things are not always going to go your way, and sometimes you have to work for them."
The tall Slovakian, who burst on to the scene as an 18-year-old when she beat Martina Hingis in the final at Indian Wells in March 2002, said she had no regrets at taking her time to reach her first Grand Slam final four.
"I guess everybody has different times when they mature more. I had to go through all those times and opportunities that I missed to be able to get here. I'm just extremely happy to be in the semis."
Hantuchova, who won titles at Indian Wells and Linz in Austria last year, used her experience to run the 18-year-old around the court, forced her deep behind the baseline and won several points on delicate drop shots.
"I felt like I had a great opportunity to win this match, but I still had to go out there and play my best, which I think I did at times."
Hantuchova will now meet fourth-seed Ana Ivanovic in the semi-finals and said she would treat the match against the highly-fancied Serb like any other.
"I've got nothing to lose. I'm in a great position. I'm feeling like I'm playing well. I'm just really looking forward to be out on the court again and give my best and see what happens."
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