Top seed Simona Halep faces a daunting task to win her second grand slam title at the Australian Open with the prospect of playing both of the Williams sisters before the quarter-final stage.
Halep, who won her maiden grand slam title last year at the French Open, is yet to win a match this season. At the Sydney International she crashed out in straight sets to Ash Barty. The Romanian has hampered by a back injury towards the end of last year and the split with coach Darren Cahill during the off-season on mutual grounds.
Now flying solo on the tour, Halep will kick-off her Australian Open campaign against the dangerous Kaia Kanepi. Knepi defeated Halep in the first round of the US Open in September, but hasn’t played since due to injury. Should she progress, Halep faces the prospect of playing Venus Williams in the third round followed by Serena in the fourth.
“It’s a tough match for sure, but the one thing Simona does well is that she does rise up to these kinds of challenges.” Cahill commented about Haelp’s clash with Kanepi.
“It is very difficult to beat her (Halep) two times in a row because she is a great student of the game, but it’s going to be a cracking first round match.”
As a result of being runner-up last year, Halep has a wealth of ranking points to defend in order to retain her world No.1 position that she has held since February.
23-time grand slam champion Williams will start her campaign against Tatjana Maria from Germany in what will be their first ever meeting on the tour. Then she could play Eugenie Bouchard or Peng Shuai followed by Carla Suarez Navarro. This year the American is seeking to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record for most grand slam singles titles won.
Reigning champion Caroline Wozniacki will seek to become the first woman to win back-to-back titles in Melbourne since Victoria Azarenka (2012-2013). The Danish third seed will start against Alison Van Uytvanck, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year. Further in the draw, she could play Maria Sharapova in the third round followed by either Barty or Jelena Ostapenko. Greece’s Maria Sakkari is also a dangerous lurker in her section.
“I can’t believe it has been a year already and we’re back. It’s awesome to be back.” Wozniacki said during the draw presentation.
Second seed Angelique Kerber takes on Polona Hercog in her first match. The German has been drawn in the same section as Donna Vekic. Meaning she will play no player ranked higher than 29th in her first three rounds. Then a potential showdown with either Julia Goerges, who recently won the ASB Classic, or Caroline Garcia awaits.
Naomi Osaka has also benefited for a relatively kind draw. The US Open champion starts against Poland’s Magda Linette, but could face a tough third round clash against unseeded Azarenka. Azarenka takes on Laura Siegemund in the first round.
Top 10 seeds and their first opponents
(1) Halep Vs Kanepi
(2) Kerber Vs Hercog
(3) Wozniacki Vs Van Uytvanck
(4) Osaka Vs Linette
(5) Stephens Vs Townsend
(6) Svitolina Vs qualifier
(7) Pliskova Vs qualifier
(8) Kvitova Vs Rybarikova
(9) Bertens Vs Riske
(10) Kasatkina Vs Bacsinszky
Projected fourth round matches
(1) Halep Vs (16) Williams
(10) Kasatkina Vs (7) Pliskova
(4) Osaka Vs (13) Sevastova
(12) Bertens Vs (6) Svitolina
(8) Kvitova Vs (11) Sabalenka
(15) Barty Vs (3) Wozniacki
(5) Stephens Vs (9) Bertens
(14) Goerges Vs (2) Kerber
Full draw
