Williams & Sharapova Kick Off Round 2
A blockbuster second-round match between Agnieszka Radwanska and Eugenie Bouchard highlights the Day 3 schedule down under, but that’s not all we’ll be keeping an eye on.
Wednesday, Day 3
Second Round
[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Eugenie Bouchard (CAN # 37)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Radwanska has won 23 of her last 28 matches.
Is Eugenie Bouchard ready to make a play for a return back to the WTA’s elite? We’ll likely have a clearer answer to that question after Wednesday’s tussle with red-hot Agnieszka Radwanska. The Pole has been in rude form thus far in 2016, wining her first six matches without the loss of a set, but she knows she’ll be in for a tough challenge when she faces Bouchard for the second time in her career. The Canadian has already won seven matches in 2016—something it took her until May to do last year—and she played scintillating tennis in taking down Aleksandra Krunic on Day 1. This promises to be a thrilling encounter between two in-form players, and the winner should be well positioned for a run deep into the second week.
Pick: Bouchard in three
[6] Petra Kvitova (CZE # 6) vs. Daria Gavrilova (AUS # 39)
Head-to-head: Kvitova leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Gavrilova served for the match in the pair’s first meeting at Wuhan last year.
Petra Kvitova erased a lot of doubts about her form on Day 1 in Melbourne when she avenged her shock upset in 2014 to Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum with a routine straight-sets win. But Kvitova is in for another challenge when she squares off against the feisty Daria Gavrilova in round two. Playing under the Aussie flag for the first time at a major, the 21-year-old eased past accomplished veteran Lucie Hradecka in straight sets on Monday. Gavrilova was close to Kvitova in their first tour-level meeting, actually serving for the match, and she hopes to take that experience into Wednesday’s tilt. “I got pretty close,” she told reporters in Melbourne on Monday. “I was serving for it in China. I was up 5-3, and I think I lost in like two minutes the next four games. She hits the ball pretty hard; has a good serve. I’ll have to work very hard and run a lot.”
Pick: Kvitova in three
[5] Maria Sharapova (RUS #5) vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR # 105)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Sasnovich has never played a top-10 player before.
Maria Sharapova shook the rust off in style on Monday, firing 11 aces and clocking 28 winners to down Japan’s Nao Hibino in straight sets. The Russian will face a relatively unknown quantity in Belarus’s Sasnovich on Wednesday, but Sharapova knows that if she plays to her potential her chances of advancing are good. “I try not to focus so much on the opponent or the atmosphere and just really focus on myself and try to bring the positives of a good training week, just try to execute that,” she said. Sasnovich, 21, made a run to the Seoul final as a qualifier last season, and while she’s never beaten a player inside the top 30, she’s proven to be tough on big occasions. She won 11 consecutive finals at the Challenger and Futures level between 2011 and 2014.
Pick: Sharapova in two
[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE # 90)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Hsieh reached the Australian’s second week as a qualifier in 2008, but has only won two matches here since.
21-time major champion Williams came out firing on Monday and quickly found that her opponent, Italy’s Camila Giorgi, was firing back. But the American, who had not competed in a tour-level match since last year’s U.S. Open, proved to be up to the challenge. She kept the hard-hitting Giorgi at bay with her lethal serve, dropping only four first-serve points and facing just one break point, and demonstrated no signs of the injury to her left knee that forced her out of Hopman Cup. Though the crafty, cerebral Hsieh isn’t much of a match on paper for the six-time Australian Open champion, at this point in Williams’ quest for major No. 22, she’s not ready to take anything for granted. “You know, everyone is here to win,” Williams said. “Everyone is here to play their hardest. Yeah, I can’t look past anyone.”
Pick: Serena in two
Around the Grounds: Belinda Bencic will look to advance to the third round in Melbourne for the first time when she meets Hungary’s Timea Babos. Babos, an elite doubles player, appears to be upping her singles game as well. She took out Great Britain’s Heather Watson in three sets on Day 1… Russian Daria Kasatkina is a player on the rise. She knocked off 27th-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova on Monday and has risen more ranking spots than any other player in the top-100 in the last year (from 350 to 69). Kasatkina will square off in a battle of promising 18-year-olds on Wednesday when she meets Croatia’s Ana Konjuh.