AUSTRALIAN OPEN DAY 2 PREVIEW

by Karen

Are you nervous for your faves?  Are you ready for Day 2 action?  I know many people are a bit anxious about today’s play considering that there are many contenders on this side of the draw who are able to take this title.  

Day 2 matches will feature matches from the top half of the draw

Court	Player A	Player B
Rod Laver Arena	Samantha Stosur (AUS)	Monica Nicolescu (ROM)
	Shelby Rogers (USA)	Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS)
Margaret Court Arena	Taylor Townsend (USA)	Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
	Yvonne Meusburger (AUT)	Casey Dellacqua (AUS)
	Serena Williams (USA)	Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL)
Hisense Arena	Sloane Stephens (USA)	Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
	Petra Kvitova (CZE)	Richel Hogenkamp (NED)
	Maria Torro-Flor (ESP)	Venus Williams (USA)
Show Court 2	Olivia Rogowska (AUS)	Nicole Gibbs (USA)
	Kurumi Nara (JPN)	Agnieskzka Radwanska (POL)
Show Court 3	Shuai Zhang (CHN)	Alize Cornet (FRA)
	Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)	Kirsten Flipkens (BEL)
Court 6	Madison Brengle (USA)	Andrea Petkovic (GER)
	Flavia Pennetta (ITA)	Camila Giorgi (ITA)
Court 7	Garbine Muguruza (ESP)	Marina Erakovic (NZL)
	Vera Zvonreva (RUS)	Ons Jabeur (TUN)
Court 8	Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)	Saisai Zheng (CHN)
	Kimiko Date-Krumm (JPN)	Anna Tatishvilli (USA)
Court 10	Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL)	Heather Watson (GBR)
	Lauren Davis (USA)	Aleksandra Krunic (SRB)
Court 11	Irina Falconi (USA)	Kaia Kanepi (EST)
	Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS)	Johanna Larsson (SWE)
Court 12	Romina Oprandi (SUI)	Denisa Allertova (CZE)
	Lesia Tsurenko (UKR)	Madison Keys (USA)
Court 13	Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) Jelena Jankovic (SRB)	Timea Babos (HUN) Timea Bacsinszky (SUI)
Court 15	Jie Zheng (CHN)	Kai-Chen Chang (TPE)
	Yulia Putintseva (KAZ)	Elina Svitolina (UKR)
Court 19	Francesca Schiavone (ITA)	Coco Vandeweghe (USA)
	Varvara Lepchenko (USA)	Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS)
Court 20	Tereza Smitkova (CZE)	Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO)
Court 22	Donna Vekic (CRO)	Mona Barthel (GER)

Match of the day

There is no doubt that the match of the day will be between the unseeded pairing of Sloane Stephens and Victoria Azarenka.  Neither player has had much in the way of match play coming into this match.  Azarenka has had one match under belt and that was a loss against Karolina Pliskova in Brisbane.  Stephens on the other hand has had 2 match wins in Auckland and Hobart. 

Another great match up on the cards will be that of the Lauren Davis of the USA taking on Alexandra Krunic of Serbia.  Many people will remember Krunic for taking out Petra Kvitova at the 2014 US Open.  There is room for lots of upsets in this part of the draw as Kurumi Nara could do the impossible and take out Radwanska.  Stosur is going up against the tricky Nicolescu, but Nicolescu has not been playing great tennis but she loves the big stage.

The Williams Sisters make their Australian Open debut this evening and I for one am looking forward to seeing Venus Williams takes on the always dangerous Torro-Flor.

This and That

I was not going to comment on this as some folks are already screaming court assignment gate, but if people like me do not speak on these issues then it will never get addressed.

Serena Williams has won the Australian Open 5 times.  She is the No. 1 ranked player in the world.  I have no idea what reasoning Craig Tiley and the organisers of the Australian Open came up with to not have Serena Williams’ match played on Rod Laver Arena.  If it is a case that preference was given to Australians, then why is it that Roger Federer’s match was not moved to one of the other show courts, or even Rafael Nadal’s to make way for Nick Krygios and Thanisi Kokkinakis, 2 up and coming Australian Open men’s rising talents who had their matches on Margaret Court Arena and Show Court 3 respectively.

While I am sure that Serena will perhaps not say anything about this sort of thing, it does leave a bad taste in the mouths of fans who believe that players should be rewarded for their hard work.  A top player expects a certain amount of privilege.  A top player expects that having reached the pinnacle of the sport, she will be rewarded for that hard work by being assigned to the largest arena in which to display her talents. It beggars belief that every year when the Grand Slams roll around, we keep having to write these articles about the slights that are afforded to the Williams Sisters. It has got to stop.

Every year Lleyton Hewitt who has not come close to winning a Grand Slam in almost 20 years continues to be assigned choice courts.  Sam Stosur has done nothing in her home Grand Slam and don’t get me started on newly minted Australian Ajla Tomljanovic.  I know that I will get a lot of negative backlash for this, but this type of behaviour from tournament directors, favouring home grown talent in terms of court assignment, at the expense of players who have been more successful is to my mind not the best way to endear fans to the sport. While many fans who are on the outer courts will be happy to get a chance to see Serena and Venus play, I can’t help but think that Serena would have preferred if she had the added advantage of being in a stadium in which she has had so many victories, rather than a stadium which has been named after one of the more polarising figures in women’s tennis.