AO '18: We Got the Ladies Down Unduh!

  

This ladies draw was so difficult for me to fill out that I literally had to sleep on it. I know Simona Halep is playing well in the early goings this year. But I don't know how all the tennis commentators are so easily handing her the crown when Petra Kvitova looms in Halep's quar-ter. They could meet in the third round. Karolina Pliskova is also in that quarter. In the same half of her draw are Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber (to be discussed further in one moment here). Caroline Garcia. I mean, that's some new math, these pundits almost unanimously crowning Halep with the draw she has and the lack of previous Slam wins.
Now. That said, she has been playing some good tennis this year. She started out the year winning a title and clinching top seed for this tournament. But here's where I can't go 100 percent in on Halep in a major. She relies so heavily on on-court coaching that I don't know if she can just win a Grand Slam tournament without constant feedback. She hasn't done it yet. And she should be able to by now.
But you know who has done it before, a couple of times in fact (*whispers* and against better players than Halep)? Kerber. Now, at the end of 2016, I offered a rather sober analysis of Kerber's No. 1 status at that point. I argued that her game wouldn't endure at that level. And 2017 knocked her back a peg -- to the 23rd seed here in Australia. But man has she been killing it on the court this year. She's serving well and tagging the hell out of her backhand. She's also won a tournament this year already and beat a lot of good players in the process -- Venus Williams, Camila Giorgi, Dominika Cibulkova, etc. So I could see Kerber advancing through the top half, too. Not that her half doesn't have its own potential land mines -- there's Maria Sharapova as a possible third-round opponent and Garbine Muguruza in the following round.
So that's why I needed to sleep on this. Not that I'll be right or anything.
Bottom half: I mean, why does Australia hate Venus Williams so much? Her results here are far from consistent, and even though she was one match from winning it last year, she draws Belinda Bencic in the first round this year? Wait, didn't Serena Williams face Bencic in the first round last year? Wonder what I had to say about that?
I am really bad at this predicting thing and I somehow refuse to stop ...

Anyway. Moving on, Ekaterina Makarova is back, and in a draw with a Williams sister. I just think Venus has a really tough hand here. She dug herself out of some holes to be the only woman to advance to three of four Slam finals last year. She ended the year with some really winnable losses. I am still scratching my head over that Sloane Stephens match at the U.S. Open. So I don't know. I want to believe, but my pen does not follow.
Speaking of Sloane, it sure looks like she's in the middle of another Muguruza-esq post-Slam drought. You know the thing about Sloane that kind of makes me wonder about her ability to remain a force? Stuff like this interview. She says, "You guys are tweeting about me more." It shows that she's reading her own press, maybe even thumbing through her mentions on Twitter. Which also means she's already read Chris Evert's comments about her. (I wonder if Evert has ever had anything to say about the quite obvious immaturity of Coco Vandeweghe.) But Sloane shouldn't be reading what people are saying about her. If she gets sucked into that, it could take a while for her to get out of this slide. Besides, she's got bigger problems on her hands, like her draw. Her quarter contains Daria Kasatkina (who Serena mentioned as one of the better young players in a recent interview), Elina Svitolina, and maybe Venus again, or Makarova.
I've still got the men to write about, so let's go to the matches to watch in the first round:
Obviously Venus v. Bencic
Kvitova v. Andrea Petkovic: DING! Upset alert
Kristina Mladenovic v. Ana Bogdan: Thoughts and prayers for Mladenovic, who is somehow ranked No. 11, despite the fact that she hasn't won a match since last July. Yes, she has been playing.
Jelena Ostapenko v. Francesca Schiavone: You go ahead Schiavone! I just mean in general, not specifically in this match she is not likely to win.
Sam Stosur v. Monica Puig: I'm afraid Stosur may never win her home slam.