Week 6 - Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia Hard

indiana · Tennis legend

Week 6 - Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia Hard

flamingowings · All-time great

indiana wrote:
Singles bottom half L16 :

Hsieh vs Vondrousova
Muguruza vs Osaka
Sabalenka vs S Williams
Swiatek vs Halep

Would like:

Hseih, either but with a slight pref to Mugu, Serena, either to win.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Playing for a place in the quarter finals, in the bottom half of the draw 3 are as predicted in the seeding. Andreescu v. Kvitova is instead Hsieh v. Vondrousova. From a Czech point of at least Kvitova and Vondrousova are both Czech. Hsieh is matching her best ever GS singles in reaching the last 16. She reached the last 16 on her AO debut in 2008. She is also remembered for defeating Laura Robson in the 2012 Guangzhou singles final.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Singles bottom half L16 :

Hsieh vs Vondrousova
Muguruza vs Osaka
Sabalenka vs S Williams
Swiatek vs Halep

Cracking line up. Shame those in bold were all in the bottom half as that would not have looked out of place at all as the QF line up, with Barty vs another completing it. Very much looking forward to Sunday.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Heathers doubles not on until Monday it seems

indiana · Tennis legend

In the Brit-bashers match-up, Shelby Rogers has beaten (21) Anett Kontaveit 6-4 6-3. Plays (1) Ash Barty in the L16.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

If the record of non seeded womens singles semi finalists is to be maintained for the 7th time in a row there are only 3 players left who could achieve it.It does look extremely unllikely . I would rate Su-Wei Hsieh's chances as nil unless there are retirements. In the top half are Shelby Rogers and Jessica Pegula who could .meet in the semi finals. Rogers would have to beat Barty and then Mertens or Muchova. Pegula would have to beat Svitolina and then Vekic or Brady. One could see 22nd seed Brady making another semi final.

Andy Parker · Club Coach

Can't wait for tonight's match ups.

Vondruosova caught the eye with a very good display against Cristea; the match was notable for possibly having more lob shots than any other I can recall (other than when I saw Larissa Neiland knock out Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon some years ago). Cristea kept coming to the net and was lobbed more than ten times in spectacular winning points. I can't see her losing to Hsieh, even though the Taiwanese player is an experienced and wily performer - Hsieh often seems to be very passive on court, relying on consistently getting the ball back in play, waiting for her opponent to make mistakes rather than dictating it and going for winners - saw some of her match against Errani and it was pretty dire stuff.

Like others, I agree that in the bottom half of the draw is much stronger - there are so many potential winners in action and it is a shame they have all ended up on the same side of the draw. Halep v Swiatek is the pick of the matches for me - Tomljanovic gave Halep a real scare, but Halep was a lot better in her last match and probably mentally needed an easier match to not use up physical and mental energy and be prepared for tonight's encounter - Swiatek looks to be a terrific prospect and I'm not calling this one.

It will be interesting how Serena copes with the power of Sabalenka - she looked out of sorts early on to Potapova, but then went up several gears and eventually won comfortably. I wonder what Margaret Court makes of Serena's struggles to match her record. I wonder if this will be Serena's last attempt to win the Aussie Open. I fancy Osaka to beat Murguruza, but another great match up.

Long night of no sleep I think, for me.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Same Andy, really looking forward to it.

I usually watch it all (on record) when I wake up (which means trying to avoid spoilers for much of the day...), but I think I'm going to watch Muguruza-Osaka, and then Serena-Sabalenka live (and have the other WTA match at that time in the background on the laptop), get some sleep, and then catch the rest on Sunday afternoon. I like both, would prefer Garbine to win, but I do too think Osaka will take that one. Edging more towards Sabalenka in the other, and it's great to see her taking her WTA form into the slams - that early defeat last week (her first in 16 at the time) could have been a blessing as she often seems to go deep the week before a slam, then crashes out early.

I'm more invested in the players in those other 2 matches, but I definitely agree that Swiatek vs Halep in a really intriguing one. Not as fussed who wins that one, hoping for an epic 3 setter, and different to their 2 recent French Open matches, which couldn't have gone more differently.

And yeah, such a shame that the more fancied form players, many with slam pedigree, all (pretty much bar Barty) found themselves in that bottom half, while the more out of sorts, high end seeds ended in the top half, but at least they have all come through thus far so that we do get these intriguing match up, albeit earlier than hoped.

If Naomi does end up taking her 4th slam, she'll certainly have done it the hard way.

indiana · Tennis legend

Vondrousova, Osaka, Williams and Swiatek for the QF.

Andy Parker · Club Coach

indiana wrote:
Vondrousova, Osaka, Williams and Swiatek for the QF.

I'll go with the first three and Halep, though extremely tough to call, which is why I said I wouldn't do that earlier.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Vondrousova, Osaka, Sabalenka, Halep for me.

All set for the Osaka-Muguruza match. Quite surprised it's their first ever meeting.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Vondrousova, Muguruza, Sabalenka, Halep for me...

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

That flew by. Was fearing it may have been one sided at 0-2*, but a storming comeback from Garbine to take the first set 6-4

I've got the other match on the laptop on in the background, but have only really been watching during the ad breaks, and Hsieh has just taken that first set 6-4 as well.

Let's see how Naomi responds...

Andy Parker · Club Coach

Vondrousova started slowly - broken in the first game and broken again later in the set and although she broke Hsieh back, Hsieh then very confidently served out the set. If this goes long, Hsieh's marathon against Errani may count against her though. Hsieh playing much better than in her last match.

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Sunday 14th of February 2021 02:24:34 AM