The Road to the Aussie Gold Part Un
With play for the Australian Open title set to kick off next week, every tennis fan worth his or her weight in garbanzo beans has looked over the draws for the tournament and drawn conclusions. Here’s mine for the women.
To get to the quarters, Justine Henin has to get through No. 5 Maria Sharapova. Also in the mix along is a host of other players who can step up and hit the ball (Lindsay Davenport, Tatiana Golovin, Elena Dementieva, Shahar Peer and Nicole Vaidisova should all put up a battle) but I like Henin’s chances. If she rolls Sharapova, you know one certain blogger who will pump a fist to the sky.
Provided both Jelena Jankovic (3) and Serena Williams (7) win through the first three rounds, they’ll meet up in the fourth round for the right to a ticket to the quarters. If Jankovic gets back on her feet, it should be a good match – who can forget Serena’s victory slam a year ago?
I like Venus Williams’ chances at making it to the quarters. If she’s on her game (sometimes a big “if”), she should dispatch No. 4 Ana Ivanovic.
No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova has a pretty easy round into the quarters, but I’ll be honest. I don’t know a whole heckuva lot about her potential opponents, not even No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze. I know, I know, I’m dropping the ball.
From the quarters on, well, it could be a lot of player’s tournament to win or lose. I like Henin’s chances but I’m also a little biased. I like her style. I can be realistic about her though and sometimes, she gets a drop in concentration and BAM, she’s out.
I think there is a realistic chance for either of the Williams’ sisters to make a deep run. I like Jankovic, but I don’t know that she’s quite on top of her game enough to make it much farther than the quarters.
Who knows? Tomorrow when I talk about the men’s draw, it’ll be much the same cup o’ tea. That’s the fun of sports and talking about who’s going to win and lose before getting shown up when the competitions actually take place. I’d be a little irked if Sharapova with her frilly dress took the gold but it’s tennis, it could happen…
