Australian Open Women’s Preview: Serena, Sharapova, Yawn.
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What’s up with the women’s line-up this year at the Aussie Open?
It’s supposed to be the surge of youngsters, but it looks like it will be the veterans going into week two.
Here are how the seeds fell in the four quarters of the draw:
Top Quarter
Top 4 Seeds: (1) Serena Williams, (8) Caroline Wozniacki, (11) Dominika Cibulkova, (15) Jelena Jankovic
Easy start for Serena, and a couple of interesting opening matches in (8) Wozniacki vs. American former world No. 1 rotund junior Taylor Townsend (winner to meet Victoria Azarenka-Sloane Stephens winner), the slumping (11) Cibulkova vs. Kirsten Flipkens, and (24) Garbine Muguruza vs. Marina Erakovic (upset alert).
Watch for Serena vs. the former No. 1 Jankovic in the fourth round, and her buddy Woz in the quarterfinals.
Second Quarter
Top 4 Seeds: (4) Petra Kvitova, (6) Aggie Radwanska, (12) Flavia Pennetta, (13) Andrea Petkovic
The weakest quarter should see Kvitova vs. Radwanska in the quarterfinals.
Openers of interest are (20) Sam Stour likely locking up against Monica Niculescu, (13) Petkovic vs. the streaking American Madison Brengle, and (12) Pennetta vs. fellow Italian and upstart Camila “My Dad is Batshit Crazy” Giorgi.
Third Quarter
Top 4 Seeds: (3) Simona Halep, (5) Ana Ivanovic, (10) Ekaterina Makarova, (14) Sara Errani
Not seemingly a lot to stand between a Halep and Ivanovic quarterfinal, with only one opener of interest: young (32) seed Belinda “Hingis 2.0” Bencic vs. German failure-to-launch Julia “Gorgeous” Goerges.
Bottom Quarter
Top 4 Seeds: (2) Maria Sharapova, (7) Genie Bouchard, (9) Angie Kerber, (16) Lucie Safarova
Yawn. Again. Where are the early match-ups? Only one in this quarter, with former world No. 2 and No. 27 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. French riser Caroline Garcia.
Maria starts against a qualifier, and should cruise into the semis.
In the semis let’s go with (1) Serena vs. (4) Kvitova, and (5) Ivanovic vs. (2) Sharapova, with Serena again flummoxing the Russian.
What have you got?
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