2024 Australian Open - Women's Discussion

Who will be WTA singles champion for the 2024 Australian Open?

  • Iga Swiatek

    Votes: 7 15.9%
  • Aryna Sabalenka

    Votes: 7 15.9%
  • Elena Rybakina

    Votes: 16 36.4%
  • Coco Gauff

    Votes: 5 11.4%
  • Jessica Pegula

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Ons Jabeur

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Marketa Vondrousova

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Maria Sakkari

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Barbora Krejcikova

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 5 11.4%

  • Total voters
    44
  • Poll closed .
A

ALCARAZWON

Guest
I watched Kenin live in Brisbane against Rodionova in the straight sets loss. No chance she is even remotely a threat to Swiatek based on what I saw. But anything can happen!
Kenin is an adrenaline player, so I wouldn't worry about her level in a lead-up event.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Kenin is an adrenaline player, so I wouldn't worry about her level in a lead-up event.
Lol ok then. Sounds like you've already made your mind up. Back to back losses to Australian's ranked outside the top 100 and you think she's now going to beat the #1 in the world? Ok.
 

ScottleeSV

Hall of Fame
Very good draw for the 3 British women given they were unseeded. Can't ask for more than that.

Sabalenla looks like the best beneficiary of the elite players, but even she could have Sansomova in Rd 4. The sport is too deep to get a completely easy draw these days.
 

ScottleeSV

Hall of Fame
Lol ok then. Sounds like you've already made your mind up. Back to back losses to Australian's ranked outside the top 100 and you think she's now going to beat the #1 in the world? Ok.

I don't think Kenin will win but she does have that ability to raise it on the unlikeliest of days. Swiatek will possibly be a bit twitchy with it being round 1. You might see it go to 5-5 in the first set or something, Kenin pretending to be unhappy at that score after every single point.

7-5 6-3
 
A

ALCARAZWON

Guest
Lol ok then. Sounds like you've already made your mind up. Back to back losses to Australian's ranked outside the top 100 and you think she's now going to beat the #1 in the world? Ok.
Kenin already beat US Open champion Gauff at Wimbledon last year.
She's capable of anything, so nobody has a clue what she'll do.
But Swiatek losing at the AO is something we've seen every year of Swiatek's career.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Very good draw for the 3 British women given they were unseeded. Can't ask for more than that.

Sabalenla looks like the best beneficiary of the elite players, but even she could have Sansomova in Rd 4. The sport is too deep to get a completely easy draw these days.
As much as I'd like to see a Boulter vs Raducanu R3 match, I think I'd rather see Qinwen vs Raducanu.
Zheng, Zhu, Y. Wang, and Yuan all in that 1/8 of the draw - unlucky for China.
 

ScottleeSV

Hall of Fame
As much as I'd like to see a Boulter vs Raducanu R3 match, I think I'd rather see Qinwen vs Raducanu.
Zheng, Zhu, Y. Wang, and Yuan all in that 1/8 of the draw - unlucky for China.

If Boulter and Burrage win 1 match each, I think they'd call that a good time.

Raducanu should be aiming for Rd 3 on that draw.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
If Boulter and Burrage win 1 match each, I think they'd call that a good time.

Raducanu should be aiming for Rd 3 on that draw.
Burrage seems to be mentally the weak, I wouldn't bet on her getting past Korpatsch in R1. Also, Boulter has Yuan who is still live in Hobart so it's not a foregone conclusion. Boulter may get Aussie crowd support as she's the other half of Demon. She normally plays well at Wimbledon so who knows, maybe the crowd backing could have a similar effect. She was looking promising last week until she got straight setted by Bogdan.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Kenin already beat US Open champion Gauff at Wimbledon last year.
She's capable of anything, so nobody has a clue what she'll do.
But Swiatek losing at the AO is something we've seen every year of Swiatek's career.
You do realise Gauff wasn’t the US Open champion then and was actually on a massive slump with that embarrassing loss and then hired a new coach who turned her game around? Terrible comparison. Do some research.
 

Marius_Hancu

Talk Tennis Guru
Tough draw for Leyla Fernandez: Gauff in R3
But talk about R1 Osaka - Garcia in that section.
And I prefer the Wikipedia version of the draw above in terms of readability
 

coolcamden

Hall of Fame
Shakattack gets 1 vote in the poll. Didn’t know Maria is on here. If not, I’d like some of whatever that voter is taking. :cool:
 

Mark-Touch

Legend
Just because some people who looked through the same lens as you (Coco didn't earn it, Sab gifted it lens) agreed with you doesn't mean you're right. I'm not a Coco fan, I'm an Iga fan. I just started supporting Coco on the forums because I saw some people denigrating her to an extreme level, and I voiced my opinion that she's young and has potential for growth. So far, Coco has proved those people wrong, so far.

You have some good points, but so do I. If Sab had more nerves than Coco in a grand slam final, then Coco controlled her nerves better. That's not gifting a match, that's winning by having better nerves, nerves of a champion. Coco could have dumped some of those easy volleys into the net, but she didn't. When Sab dumped some easy volleys into the net, that's not her gifting the match, because Sab wanted to win the match, she wanted to make that volley, but she made a mistake, we all do that sometimes, maybe some of them were due to nerves, but a champion controls their nerves, they get better with experience, if Sab made UEs, that's her fault, she should have gotten in better shape so she could practice more, maybe like the shape Coco is in, or Iga is in, then maybe she would have made more of those shots, it's not gifting, it's about being better in the moment. Sab is a professional player, #2 in the world, she's a Ostapenko, Garcia type player where she pounds the ball with 100% effort almost every time. Sab just makes it more often than Ostapenko and other lower ranked players. If Sab made a lot of UEs because she's that type of player, then that's her fault, it doesn't mean she gifted the match, she didn't purposely hit the ball out, she was off that day. And Coco gets credit for forcing some of those shots. Why can't you admit that a blindingly fast player forces errors and frustrates their opponents?
I can't argue with most of what you wrote.
It's coming down to semantics.

You say Coco had better nerves than Sab and it was the nerves that caused Sab to have so many UE's.
It could well have been her nerves. It could have been her proclivity to go for too much when not necessary.

Anyway, Coco won the match in the end, that's all that counts.
She keeps getting better and better and she has a legit shot at the title this year.
And so does Sab, who won it last year.
 
A

ALCARAZWON

Guest
You do realise Gauff wasn’t the US Open champion then and was actually on a massive slump with that embarrassing loss and then hired a new coach who turned her game around? Terrible comparison. Do some research.

I did realize, but I doubt you knew that Gauff beat world #4 Pegula 63 63 at Eastbourne.
Then Gauff lost to Kenin at Wimbledon 46 64 26.
And then Gauff beat world #9 Sakkari at Washington.
And then Gauff lost to world #3 Pegula 26 75 57 at Montreal.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
What about Samsonova? She is up 2-1 with Saba
In a poor slump since she made the Beijing final in October. Has lost her last 3 matches and both played this year. Was thrashed by Andreeva in Brisbane winning just 3 games and lost to Siegemund in 3 sets in Adelaide.

Anisimova 1R will be an interesting one for her. Then Podoroska/Zidansek. Those two were both funnily enough surprise SFists of the 2021 French Open singles. And then a tough 3R against anyone from Vekic to Badosa to Pavlyuchenkova or Townsend.

I don't see Samsonova being the one to get out of that little section to face Sabalenka 4R.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
I did realize, but I doubt you knew that Gauff beat world #4 Pegula 63 63 at Eastbourne.
Then Gauff lost to Kenin at Wimbledon 46 64 26.
And then Gauff beat world #9 Sakkari at Washington.
And then Gauff lost to world #3 Pegula 26 75 57 at Montreal.
That was Gauff's only top 10 win in the previous 10 months having been spanked left right and centre by Swiatek, Garcia, Sabalenka and Kasatkina. Everyone knows the Gauff we now know was not the Gauff at Wimbledon when Kenin won.

But keep playing dumb.
 

HarveyPitnik

Professional
Czech youngsters Brenda Fruhvirtova and Sara Bejlek keep they winning ratio in Grand Slam qualies very high and once again both through to the main draw. Katie Volynets also through after a long and fierce fight against Argentinian Riera.
And last year's junior champion Alina Korneeva also through beating former top 100 player anna Bondar.
 
So irritating that they changed the schedule of the qualies after there was no playing yesterday because of the rain. I was looking forward to see Alina Korneeva (girls champion in both Australian and French open last year) in action but her match has now changed to 3rd and here in Northern Europe it's already 1.47 A.M. so I'm going to sleep in ten minutes or so. Have watched for some time Katie Volynets against Dutch Suzan Lamens (ranking over 200) and it seems Katie has not progressed in a year at all and she is definitely lacking that strong spirit she had last year. :( (Leading 5-4 on serve, she was already 4-2, so maybe she blows this lead too - did it and now 5-6) They are playing on 1573 Arena and the number of spectators are only about 1570 below that number :laughing: )

Edit. Korneeva's match actually only the fourth on court 15.

Alina through!
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Damn, Australia had 5 women make it to the final round of qualifying and it looks like we are going to go 0 from 5 for the main draw from qualies.

Priscilla Hon
Destanee Aiava (who led 4-2 final set but lost 4-6)
Maddison Joint
Maddison Inglis (down a set right now)
Storm Hunter (also down a set right now)
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Well Australia got one through.

The #1 in doubles, Storm Hunter comes through 3 rounds of qualifying to make the main draw in singles.

You'd think the organizers could have given her a WC cause I doubt she's going to do too well in the doubles as the top seed with these 3 matches under her belt.
 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
I have been very impressed with her progress over the past year.
She has bulked up nicely, giving her much more power everywhere.
She's no longer a loopty-doo player. She can crush the ball now at will.
I think the extra upper body muscle she put on might might be a mistake. Her speed and movement is her biggest asset, and upper body mass generally hinders that.

Also, she is most certainly still a "loopty-doo" player. Check out the tie-break in her recent match against Svitolina, and basically anything from the end of the first set onwards. If people think her forehand is fixed, they are sorely mistaken.
It looked like a gift because Coco was tracking down balls with blinding speed. This made Sab go for shots harder than she's normally comfortable and go for the lines instead of a little bit inside the line.
Ah, OK, why don't you just say that you have never seen Sabalenka play before? Newsflash: she always plays on the limit and at full speed ahead. That's her thing. She choked that final away. Yes, Coco helped her choke, but it was Sabalenka's loss.
They are hoping for a repeat. I swear her and Gauff have the easiest paths to a SF possible, it's insane.
Yet another easy draw for Gauff in a slam? Say it isn't so. That is how many now recently?

Some of the notables for me:
Emma Rads has potential 2nd round with Cirstea.

Giorgi v. Vika Azarenka
Um, Emma is losing to Rodgers in the first round. We haven't seen Shelby in a while, so we don't know her form, but she usually shows up for slams, and she will be fresh.

Unfortunately, I don't know if the Queen of Tennis, Camila Giorgi, will make it past the first round either. Azarenka loves Australia, is in good form, and I think the matchup bothers Camila (arrogant jerks like Vika seem to disturb her a little). Anyway, here's to hoping that our Queen can make it through.
It's cringe but I will say that Sabalenka is absolutely hilarious.
She seems to be super fun, cute and delightful away from the court.

Curious, why do people think Taylor Townsend is a tough match?
Because she is better at tennis than Coco Gauff, for example. She just can't move quite as quickly. But her game is right at the very top level, especially at the net.

How about Andreeva getting to the quarters?
She was looking really good recently, until she wasn't. As long as she can stay calm, she can play top 10 tennis.
 
Last edited:

Mark-Touch

Legend
^^ :D

Maybe doing that with a small letter would actually help in the main draw. Poor stuff but finally gets it done.
Yeah it was pretty poor indeed. I only saw a bit of the match, but was rooting for Yastremska.
She can be a really hot/cold player. Not just over a period of weeks or months, but even in a match.
Not someone I would ever want to put money on, but I still enjoy watching her play every now and then.
She has a very carefree attitude on court. :)
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Worth mentioning that despite being a top 8 seed and a poll option, Maria Sakkari has lost in the 1R of the last 3 slams.

Horrendous slam record outside of the one year - 2021 where she made the RG and USO SF's.

Hopeless player who is trying to turn it around in Melbourne.
 

neytron

Semi-Pro
Three 16 year olds in the draw (Andreeva, Fruhvirtova, and Korneeva) along with 17 year old Bejlek. Good crop of youngsters.
I wonder how long it has been since three 16 yo or younger entered slam main draw? And two finalists of the junior slam, which entered main draw of this slam next year.
 
Last edited:

HarveyPitnik

Professional
^ Mirra, Brenda and Sara Bejlek were all in the French Open main draw last year as well but they don't quite fullfill your requirement as Sara had already turned 17 and - haven't checked this - Mirra was perhaps just 15 then.
If there were no more youngsters in the Roland Garros main draw I'd bet there were in US Open 2022!?!
 

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
I wonder how long it has been since three 16 yo or younger entered slam main draw? And two finalists of the junior slam, which entered main draw of this slam next year.
not sure it was the last time, but two 15 year olds(Vaidisova, Karatantcheva) and two 16 year olds were in main draw of 2004 US Open(Jessica Kirkland, Golovin)

edit - looks like there were six 16 year olds in the 2005 US Open (Vaidisova, Karantcheva, Mary Gambale, Latisha Chan, Alexa Glatch, Vania King)
 
Last edited:

flyingboris

Legend
I'm trying to think who I would like to see win the most. In order of ranking, I'd enjoy Sabalenka, Gauff, Jabeur, Sakkari, Muchova, Kasatkina, Bencic, Garcia, Svitolina, Fernandez. Yeah I know, fat chance of most of those, but one can dream. :)
 

Mark-Touch

Legend
I'm trying to think who I would like to see win the most. In order of ranking, I'd enjoy Sabalenka, Gauff, Jabeur, Sakkari, Muchova, Kasatkina, Bencic, Garcia, Svitolina, Fernandez. Yeah I know, fat chance of most of those, but one can dream. :)
I wouldn't mind seeing any in the revision to your list win. :)
But there are a whole bunch more who I'd prefer over them.
Probably at the top of my list is Mirra.
 

coolcamden

Hall of Fame
I'm trying to think who I would like to see win the most. In order of ranking, I'd enjoy Sabalenka, Gauff, Jabeur, Sakkari, Muchova, Kasatkina, Bencic, Garcia, Svitolina, Fernandez. Yeah I know, fat chance of most of those, but one can dream. :)
Agree with all your preferences, subtract Leylah, add Osty. Actually wanting Osty to win is pretty high on my list.

My lady, Muchova is out sick, my other lady Bencic is out preggy.
 
Top