AO – Week One Wrap

The sweltering first week comes to a close with, as usual, some expected results and a handful of surprises.

On the men’s side, most of the favorites have made it through to the fourth round, with the notable exception of Juan Martin Del Potro.  Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (if you’ve never heard of him before, join the club) showed Delpo the door before dispatching the talented Benoit Paire in the following round in straight sets.  He now faces young (not Baby Fed) Dimitrov who upon beating Milos Raonic made it to the second week of a Slam for the first time.  It’ll be a terrific chance for Dimitrov to make it to his first Slam quarterfinal, likely to meet an in-form Rafa there.

After beating Deliciano, Andy Murray now faces Frenchman Stephane Robert to meet the winner of Jo-Wily and the Rog.  It seems that Federer and Tsonga square off in Slams, either in the fourth round or the quarters more often than not over the past few years, and Tsonga has certainly given Roger fits at times.  Federer leads the H2H 9-5 over their careers, with a couple of wins on the hardcourts in Melbourne, but last year in the quarters, it took five hard fought sets to get the job done.  Expect this match to be similarly tight.

The other potential quarter of particular interest would be if both Stan Wawrinka and Djoker advance.  Thinking back to last years epic battles at both the Australian Open and the US Open, we fans hope that such a match would provide the same kind of fireworks.  Stan the Man seems poised to break through this season and start to impose his will on the top players, and it’s possible that he starts right here.

On the women’s side, it’s more of a mix of the very top seeds doing what they’re supposed to to (Serena, Sharapova, Vika, Li Na), and a whole mess of youngsters playing with uncommon determination.  As mentioned in a previous post, Simona Halep continues to display the game to go deep in the tournament, and both Genie Bouchard (she and her army) and Dominika Cibulkova have yet to drop a set.  Cibulkova lost a total of two games over her last two matches.

Likewise, Garbine Muguruza of Span just knocked off Caroline Wozniacki who had previously looked a different incarnation of herself, being much more aggressive on court and posting results that proved that such was a positive development.  Against Muguruza, however, she was frankly outgunned and now needs to go back to new coach Thomas Hogstedt and continue to work on transforming her game.  It’s hard to call Sloane Stephens a young upstart given her past results at Slams, this one in particular, but nonetheless, the young American makes it to the second week and now faces Vika in what should be one of the more exciting and hard-fought fourth round matches.

In fact, looking up and down the women’s draw, it hard to find a fourth round match that isn’t suggestive of a difficult and interesting match.  Makarova is in good form and the lefty could give Li Na trouble.  Jankovic and Halep should be a great match, as could Cibulkova and a Sharapova who has yet to find her serve.

Things are just getting fun…