The Grand Slam Down Under? More like the Mystery Down Under with the current crop of injuries on the WTA circuit. A majority of the top ten are fighting nagging injuries meanwhile, it looks like a familiar face is ready to take back her throne at the Australian Open.
Defending champion Serena Williams is fighting knee inflammation. Her opponent in last year’s final, Maria Sharapova, is dealing with a forearm injury. Both women have yet to play a full match during the Australian summer so far. The world number one played one set of Hopman Cup of tennis before retiring from the match and withdrawing from the event completely. Sharapova withdrew before playing at the Brisbane International.
Simona Halep and Garbiñe Muguruza are battling injuries as well. The world number three is also yet to play a match while Halep has played while battling an Achilles injury. Meanwhile, Victoria Azarenka is looking fit and raring to take home a second Australian Open crown after a dominant performance at the Brisbane International.
The draw has been officially completed with the qualifiers having been placed into their respective sections. It’s time to take a look at each section of the draw and break it down.
Serena Williams’ Quarter
The American opens up with the hard-hitting Camila Giorgi in the opening round. The Italian just missed out on being seeded at Melbourne Park so she’ll be hard done by the fact she’s playing in the defending champion in the opening round. Remember, the only time Serena has lost in the opening round of the a Grand Slam was when Virginie Razzano knocked out Serena in the 2012 French Open. The Frenchwoman came back from a set and 1-5 down in the second.
Giorgi just plays straight ball-bashing tennis, hitting the ball as hard as she can without much change of pace. Serena can often have problems with players who can match her power for power, but Giorgi should not cause her any problems at all.
Anna Karolina Schmiedlova is the 27th seed and faces a dangerous opponent in Darya Kasatkina. The Russian upset Venus Williams at the ASB Classic in Auckland just a couple of weeks ago with a brilliant performance, outmatching the American in every department. The Slovakian will have to be wary of this first round of encounter in a showdown of rising stars in the WTA.
This top portion of the draw is filled with young, talented stars. Ana Konjuh and Jelena Ostapenko are two 18 year olds in this top half and join Kasatkina and Schmiedlova as ones who could make some noise in the draw.
Sara Errani or Caroline Wozniacki are the ones on a crash course for a round of 16 showdown with Serena Williams. However, Errani could see herself knocked out early against rising Russian Margarita Gasparyan. At 21, the Russian is considered one of the next hopes for Russia after Sharapova so she’s bearing a lot of fate from the Russians. Wozniacki has to be the favorite to get out of this section. The draw is in the former world number one’s favor so a matchup against her best friend Serena Williams seems all but likely.
Belinda Bencic is the 12th seed and has beaten Serena Williams before, last year’s Rogers Cup semifinal, but is currently struggling with her current level of play. Alison Riske is a “risky” first round matchup for Bencic especially with how she has been playing lately. Svetlana Kuznetsova is a two-time Grand Slam champion yet is currently being overlooked heading into the Australian. Her resilience against Halep when facing set points helped her comeback as she roared her way to the Apia International Sydney title. Pure guts and determination carried the Russian in that match, delivering some stellar backhands on the riskiest of shots as well as some second serve aces. The Russian is seeded 23rd but is the slight favorite to sneak out of this section ahead of Belinda Bencic.
Last year’s finalist Maria Sharapova has hit an unlucky bump in the road to a potential sixth Grand Slam title as she draws Serena Williams in the same quarter. She could face fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 26th seed. It seems destined that the Sharapova and Serena are set for this quarterfinal showdown. Barring some kind of miracle for the Russian, she’ll witness yet another loss to the American, an 18th straight loss.
Outside of Riske and Serena, only one other American is in this quarter with Lauren Davis facing Pavlyuchenkova. Also, there is only Australian in this portion of the draw with Ajla Tomljanovic facing Kateryna Bondarenko.
Quarterfinalists: Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova
Semifinalist: Serena Williams
First Round Matches to Watch For: Williams - Giorgi, Kasatkina - Schmiedlova, Errani - Gasparyan, Bencic - Riske, Heather Watson - Timea Babos, Pavlyuchenkova - Davis
Agnieszka Radwanska’s Quarter
The fourth-seeded Pole vaulted herself to earn her own quarter over Maria Sharapova after Sharapova’s withdrawal from Brisbane added to her own title in Shenzhen. She opens up against Christina McHale. However, things could get potentially tricky in round two should she meet Canadian Eugenie Bouchard. The Canadian is already showing flashes of her 2014 form which brought her to the WTA Finals and a Wimbledon final, but a poor showing at the Hobart International final may have brought many expectations of the Canadian back down to earth.
Aleksandra Krunic, Bouchard’s first round opponent, could also provide some problems to Radwanska. The Serbian is not afraid of the big stage. She knocked off Madison Keys and Petra Kvitova at the 2014 US Open before succumbing to Victoria Azarenka in three sets. The Canadian doesn’t offer the power and pace like Serena does, but she offers consistent, deep hitting which could definitely give the world number four some trouble.
This section also contains home favorite Samantha Stosur, the 25th seed. The Australian has never performed well at home, only making two fourth round appearances with the last one back in 2010. Stosur’s home struggles are clearly evident which makes her first round match against qualifier Kristyna Pliskova much more intriguing. With the Czech coming off qualifying, she’ll be able to relay that momentum into a nice showing Down Under.
For the second straight quarter, there’s a section in which the higher-seeded player should be the favorite to advance. 24th-seeded Sloane Stephens was placed into the section with 13th-seeded Roberta Vinci. The Italian and US Open finalist will face a stiff challenge from Tamira Paszek who has been playing some exceptional tennis lately. The Austrian is slowly re-finding her game which brought her to two Wimbledon finals not too long ago. Like Kristyna Pliskova, Paszek is a qualifier so she’ll be riding her momentum into a surprising run which could garner her best ever Aussie Open showing ever. Stephens faces Qiang Wang in the opening round.
Carla Suarez Navarro witnessed so many struggles in the second half last year, but she seems to have shaken some of that off so far. With three qualifiers in her section of the draw, the Spaniard must be licking her chops at the chance to make at least the fourth round. Her lone second week appearance came back in 2009 when she made the quarterfinals. She begins her campaign against Viktorija Golubic and could face another qualifier in the second round should she makes it. Andrea Petkovic, the 22nd-seeded German, should have no problem with her draw either and should meet Suarez Navarro in a potential big-time showdown in the third round for a spot in the second week.
The final portion of Radwanska’s quarter has some appetizing opening round matchups. 28th-seeded Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic meets 2014 Australian Open runner-up. That will be quite the showdown with Mladenovic trying to continue her impressive performances in majors. She made the 2015 US Open quarterfinals and won the hearts of many with her stunning tweener last year.
Sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova is set to meet Luksika Kumkhum from Thailand in the opening round. When the two met back in 2014, the Thailand native upset the Czech and oddly enough, the two were placed in the same section of the draw as they were back in 2014 which were the last two players in the top half of the draw. Let's also not forget that Kvitova has been battling gastrointestinal illness over the past couple of weeks so an upset is even more likely on the cards if she's steal dealing with it.
Five Americans are in Radwanska’s quarter highlighted by Stephens. Two of them face off when Anna Tatishvili faces Irina Falconi. Nicole Gibbs is the other American and meets Klara Koukalova.
Another major Australian hope, outside of Stosur, is in this draw. Daria Gavrilova faces Lucie Hradecka in the first round. With this section on upset alert, the women popularly known as Dasha could be the final Aussie standing if the draw works in her favor.
Quarterfinalists: Stephens, Gavrilova
Semifinalist: Stephens
First Round Matches to Watch For: Radwanska - McHale, Vinci - Paszek, Mladenovic - Cibulkova
Garbiñe Muguruza’s Quarter
The quarter of the Spaniard’s contains the second favorite woman for the title, but no it’s not Muguruza. Victoria Azarenka, coming off a stunning performance in Brisbane, is the second favorite to win the title and could even be considered a co-favorite with Serena facing a couple of question marks.
The quarter begins with seventh-seeded German Angelique Kerber who opens up against Misaki Doi. The German has picked up right where she left off from last year after storming her way into the Brisbane final before she ran into an on-fire Muguruza. This top section of this quarter should see the seeds hold Kerber and 29th-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu.
The second portion of this quarter provides a bit of a mystery. Both seeded women, Jelena Jankovic, seeded 19th, and Timea Bacsinszky, seeded 11th, are either ailing or struggling with mentally. Polona Hercog and Katerina Siniakova, Jankovic and Bacsinszky’s respective first round opponents, are fully capable of pulling off the first round shocker which could open up the path for someone like Kiki Bertens to get to the fourth round.
Now it’s time for Azarenka’s section. Should the 14th-seeded Belarusian knockoff Alison Van Uytvanck in the first round, she will probably meet Samantha Crawford in the second round. These two met in the Brisbane International semifinals where Azarenka overmatched an overwhelmed Crawford who could not deal with the situation. 18th-seeded Elina Svitolina is another player who feels hard done by her draw. The Ukrainian is likely not to get past the third round. Svitolina meets Victoria Duval in the first round in a matchup of their Hopman Cup match earlier this year. Svitolina won in straights, but Duval showed competitiveness and just needs to work on her serve which will comeback with match play.
We’ve arrived to Muguruza’s section of the draw. Her probable third round opponent is Caroline Garcia who is seeded 32nd. The Frenchwoman has a tricky first round match against Barbora Strycova. Muguruza faces Anett Kontaveit but could potentially meet a dangerous Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round.
The Americans and Aussies are beginning to get jam-packed in this section. Outside of Duval and Crawford who have been already mentioned, Coco Vandeweghe and Madison Brengle are the other two Americans in this section; they play each other in the first round in a rematch of their third round showdown last year.
Two Australian wild cards are in this section led by possibly the best name in the tournament, Storm Sanders. Sanders opens up against Alexandra Dulgheru. Teenager Priscilla Hon is the other wild card in this quarter and will face Annika Beck in the first round.
Quarterfinalists: Angelique Kerber, Victoria Azarenka
Semifinalst: Victoria Azarenka
First Round Matches to Watch For: Brengle - Vandeweghe, Azarenka - Van Uytvanck, Crawford - Kovinic, Naomi Osaka - Donna Vekic, Duval - Svitolina, Garcia - Strycova, Kirsten Flipkens - Mirjana Lucic-Baroni
Simona Halep’s Quarter
The final quarter of the women’s draw starts off with an absolute cracker. Eighth-seeded Venus Williams meets Johanna Konta of Great Britain, If their match in Wuhan is any indication of what is set to happen on Tuesday, it is set to be a barnburner. For those who don’t remember, their matchup in Wuhan went three sets, with Venus capturing the final set 7-5. 30th-seeded Sabine Lisicki seems to have figured her hard court game as of late. She was a fourth-rounder at last year’s US Open and was ahead in the second set before crashing out to Simona Halep. However, she’s extremely topsy-turvy on anything outside of grass courts so it’s a toss-up on how she’ll play down in Melbourne Park this year.
Ekaterina Makarova, the 21st-seeded Russian, was coming off an injury to end her 2015 season. However, the Australian has provided her best results at the Slams in her singles career. Since 2011, she’s been a consistent member of the second week with her best run coming last year, making the semifinals. Before that, her two best runs came in back-to-back years in 2012 and 2013, making the quarterfinals. She’ll open up her campaign for a sixth straight second week appearance.
Karolina Pliskova is the ninth seed heading into the tournament, but her Grand Slam record is absolutely horrid for a top ten player, and that’s being kind. In Slams, she’s 10-13 and has never made it past to the third round in a Slam. That run is set to continue if she meets Makarova in the third round or meets Julia Goerges in the second round. Goerges, who can be all over the place with her game sometimes, can really bring it when she’s on. She’ll definitely be a danger to Pliskova if the two meet in the second round.
Madison Keys leads the second to last section of the draw. The American was a semifinalist last year and is looking to shed the “next” label. She’ll face a tricky opening round match against Zarina Diyas. Ana Ivanovic, seeded 20th, is looking to throw out the horrid memories of last year where she came in as one of the favorites coming into the tournament coming off of a memorable 2014 and a final in Brisbane to open her season last year. However, all that hard work was quickly undone with a first round loss to Lucie Hradecka. Barring another disaster, this second to last section should see the two seeds clash in the third round.
Finally, we have come to Halep’s section of the draw. Lesia Tsurenko is seeded 31st and does not have an easy first round match, meeting America’s Varvara Lepchenko. Halep, who is nursing a constantly nagging Achilles injury, does not have a draw that’s too difficult. Her draw is extremely favorable and should not be tested at all until the fourth round at least should she make it there.
One American remains standing in the draw, and that is Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The quirky American will face Denisa Allertova in the first round.
Aussies dominate this section, just as they did in the men’s. The men placed six players in the final quarter while the women have placed four. Unluckily for them, three of them will face seeded players. Makarova faces off against wild card Maddison Inglis while Pliskova meets Kimberly Birrell. Newly-married Jarmila Wolfe will play Anastasija Sevastova while Ivanovic meets Tammi Patterson.
Both bottom sections of each half of the draw are the most wide open. Each do not contain a single favorite, and no knock on Halep, her status as a clear favorite is obviously hampered because of her Achilles injury. That injury is something we’ll have to keep an eye on throughout the tournament.
Quarterfinalists: Simona Halep, Venus Williams
Semifinalist: Venus Williams
First Round Matches to Watch For: Williams - Konta, Keys - Diyas, Tsvetana Pironkova - Yaroslava Shvedova, Tsurenko - Lepchenko
Semifinals and Finals Prediction
Serena Williams defeats Sloane Stephens
Victoria Azarenka defeats Venus Williams
Final: Victoria Azarenka defeats Serena Williams