The action in Melbourne begins on January 15th and the notable absentee, of course, is reigning champion, Serena Williams. Without the American, the field will be wide open as the players descend on Melbourne Park this month. This is the opening Grand Slam event of the year and it is notable that prize monies are shared equally at the tournament between men and women.
Serena Williams has not returned to defend her title after having given birth to her daughter in September last year. Former champion Victoria Azarenka is not at the event either because of custody issues with her child which is preventing her from leaving California. So that is the loss of a couple of big names. Romanian Simona Halep goes into the tournament as the number one seed, but five players behind her are waiting to pounce and take over at the top.
Caroline Wozniacki and Elina Svitolina would have to get to the semi-finals to be in with a chance of taking over as World Number One, while Garbine Muguruza has to get to the final, while Karolina Pliskova and Jelena Ostapenko would have to win the event to get to the top of the rankings.
Reigning Champion
Serena Williams is the reigning Australian Open Champion and she broke Steffi Graf’s all-time record of Grand Slam victories in the Open era by getting her 23rd last January in Melbourne. That was her seventh Australian Open title and it was the only tournament that Serena Williams entered in 2017 as well. We haven’t seen her since in competitive action.
Australian Open betting Odds*
Karolina Pliskova 8/1, Garbine Muguruza 8/1, Simona Halep 8/1, Elina Svitolina 10/1, Maria Sharapova 11/1, Caroline Wozniacki 11/1, Angelique Kerber 14/1, Petra Kvitova 16/1, Julia Goerges 16/1, Johanna Konta 20/1, Madison Keys 20/1, Venus Williams 22/1, Coco Vandeweghe 25/1, Caroline Garcia 25/1, Belinda Bencic 25/1, Jelena Ostapenko 25/1, bar 28/1* (Betting Odds taken January 8th, 2018 at 2.41 am)
Qualification
The top 32 players taking part from the World Rankings will be the seeded players at the draw. The top two seeds will be split into the separate halves, so Simona Halep goes right at the top of the draw and second seed Caroline Wozniacki is at the very bottom of the bottom half of the draw. There is a selection committee that hands out eight wildcard entries to the tournament as well. Plus there is a full qualifying draw for the Women’s singles too with twelve places up for grabs and each qualifier from that will have to have come through three matches successfully to make the main draw.
The Draw
Top Sixteen Seeds by Draw Section
Top Half
Section 1 Seeds: Simona Halep (1), Elena Vesnina (16)
Section 2 Seeds: Jo Konta (9), Karolina Pliskova (6)
Section 3 Seeds: Garbine Muguruza (3), Anastasija Sevastova (14)
Section 4 Seeds: Kristina Mladenovic (11), Caroline Garcia (8)
Bottom Half
Section 5 Seeds: Venus Williams (5), Julia Goerges (12)
Section 6 Seeds: Sloane Stephens (13), Elina Svitolina (4)
Section 7 Seeds: Jelena Ostapenko (7), Coco Vandeweghe (10)
Section 8 Seeds: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (15), Caroline Wozniacki (2)
As the top two seeds, Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki respectively, will be kept apart in the draw until the final. The top half of the draw at the Australian Open looks the most difficult because you have the likes of Halep, Konta, Pliskova and Muguruza all in there. That top quarter which has Halep, Pliskova and Konta is going to be a huge battle and whoever comes through that is going to really have their work cut out for them. With that said Garbine Muguruza, who would be a semi final opponent for whoever gets through that top section, has a couple of tricky opponents, notably French battler Caroline Garcia and young star Anastasija Sevastova.
So the bottom half of the draw looks wide, wide open for anyone to make a decent run at the final. That is where Julia Goerges could come into play if she backs up her early season consistently. But the biggest benefactor of the draw really is Elina Svitolina who will really fancy her chances against what could lie ahead of her. Second seed Wozniacki won’t be quaking in her boots really either. Coming through hat bottom half of the draw with less hard, competitive action could prove crucial in the latter stages.
Seedings Top 8
- Simona Halep
- Caroline Wozniacki
- Garbine Muguruza
- Elina Svitolina
- Venus Williams
- Karolina Pliskova
- Jelena Ostapenko
- Caroline Garcia
Contenders
Heading up the market are Karolina Pliskova and Garbine Muguruza, who are both looking for their first ever Australian Open Grand Slam titles. Muguruza does have two other Grand Slam titles to her name during her career while Pliskova is still waiting to land her first. These are two very good players and of the two you would probably favour Pliskova at the 5/1 odds with William Hill* (Betting Odds taken January 8th, 2018 at 2.39 am) to go the further of the two on the hard court. Pliskova reached the quarter finals here last year and overall has reached the quarters at least in four of her last five Grand Slam appearances.
The former World Number One looked a little tired towards the end of last season, so should be fresher off the blocks and went to the semis of Auckland as a warm-up. Muguruza also went to the quarter finals of the Australian Open last year and despite perhaps not having been as consistent in Slams as Pliskova has been, the Spaniard has won a Grand Slam in each of the last two seasons, the French Open in 2016 and last year’s Wimbledon.
Simona Halep is looking for her first career Grand Slam title and there will be more pressure on her going as the World Number One now. She has been one of those frustrating players who go into the big tournaments as a strong option but just cannot quite get over the line. She has been to at least the quarter finals in four of her last six Grand Slam events but that big win keeps eluding her and it may be down to mental focus. She warmed up with a title at the Shenzhen Open. She is aggressive and will take this one, but her biggest slam chance will come in Paris.
Britain’s Jo Konta has been flying under the radar a bit in the build-up to the Australian Open 2018 and maybe that will help her. There’s probably not a gutsier player on the tour than her, and we saw on her run to the Wimbledon semi-final last year how well that she can fight. However, she does find herself in situations where she gets herself down, especially against lower ranked scrappy players. She needs her first serve going well and has been the semi-final and then the quarter-final in Melbourne in the last two years. Not a bad track record and has to at least target the last eight again.
Elina Svitolina, who has no track record at the Australian Open, started the season with a bang by winning the Brisbane International, where she beat Pliskova along the way and that will have done her confidence the world of good. She doesn’t have the most powerful of serves compared to those around her at the top of the game, but looks great value and fresh again at the start of the year. Caroline Garcia ran into some hot form at the back end of the year, including winning her first Premier Mandatory title and there will be increased pressure on her to step it up at a Slam.
Young Latvian Jelena Ostapenko made headlines last year with her win at the French Open before getting to the quarters of Wimbledon as well. This is a player who is absolutely fearless and that makes her dangerous, but she will be stronger in Paris and London probably again than on the two hard court Slams. Then there is the evergreen Venus Williams who reached the final here last year before falling to her sister. She also reached the final of Wimbledon and the semi finals of the US Open as well last year. What will she have in her this season? Maria Sharapova, the 2008 Australian Open Champion doesn’t have a bad track record in Melbourne, but maybe needs another solid season behind her to get close to another Slam title and like Halep, her best shot will come at the French Open.
Outsider
Julia Goerges fits the bill here. The German didn’t go well last season in the Grand Slams at all, but things could be different this time around. That is because she will be one of the top sixteen seeds in Melbourne and that projects an easier path for her. Last year she ended on a nine-match winning streak with two tails and rattled straight back into form this season with a win in Auckland for her third title on the bounce as she knocked off Caroline Wozniacki. She could turn up in great form and no-one will want to meet her early based on all of that.
Prediction
Elina Svitolina looks tremendous value in what is a wide open field. There are question marks over the likes of Muguruza and Halep, so there is an appeal to look a little bit longer. No-one won more titles last season than Svitolina and after the strong start to the season, she could be ready to step it up in a Slam. Pliskova is likely to be the strongest of the front runners on the hard court, but Svitolina is there at the moment and she’s a good each way bet with William Hill at 10/1* (Betting Odds taken January 8th, 2018 at 2.39 am) at least and our long shot full falls on Goerges.
