Now a tradition of the Australian summer, this week sees the return of the Australian Open playoff with 16 of Australia’s best women’s tennis players competing for a spot in the first Grand Slam of the year.
On offer to the winner of the AO playoff is a lucrative wild card into the Australian Open, plus the opportunity to compete in Sydney or Hobart without being tied down to qualifying in the second week of the New Year.
The field for this year’s event is strong, with many players who have competed in the Australian Open main draw looking to make the field once again.
With the exception of Ash Barty, Olivia Rogowska and Sam Stosur, some of Australia’s best players will be competing in the event.
While Stosur already has her place secured for the event, both Barty and Rogowska are missing to prepare fully for the Australian summer.
Both will almost be a lock for a wild card anyway given their positions in the rankings.
Between the 16 players competing in the event, half of the field have competed in the main draw of the Australian Open.
Those eight have competed in the Grand Slam 37 times, with two of the competitors progressing further than the fourth round at the event.
One of them, Casey Dellacqua, is the top seed for the event, and is the favourite heading into the tournament.
Two wins in the recent ITF events in Bendigo have Dellacqua primed to make her ninth appearance at her home Grand Slam.
She will be looking to win the playoff to prepare for the summer without the fear of not knowing whether she is in the Grand Slam.
First up for the fourth rounder at the 2008 Australian Open will be under-18 national champion Maddison Inglis.
Inglis, who is just 15 years old, will face a tough task against the former world number 39.
Dellacqua then faces either Monique Adamczak or Azra Hadzic in the quarters. With Dellacqua 4-0 head to head against Adamczak and Hadzic over 200 spots behind Dellacqua in the rankings, she should make the semi-finals.
The bottom half, and Dellacqua’s potential semi-final opponent, looks to be wide open as two players return from a long layoff.
Jarmila Gajdosova and Jelena Dokic return after injuries, but only one will make the quarter-final after both drew each other in the first round.
It will be Dokic’s first tournament since the WTA event in Charleston in 2012 and she faces a tough task against Gajdosova.
Gajdosova recently returned at the WTA event in Nanjing and made the semi-finals after qualifying for the event. Before that, Gajdosova suffered mononucleosis which ruled her out of tennis for a few months.
Given her form before the illness, and her form after it, she will be the favourite to defeat Dokic, who will be rusty after a long layoff from the sport.
The winner of this match will face either Tammi Patterson or Sara Tomic, who will battle in the other match on this side of the draw. Sara is the younger sister of Bernard Tomic and will make her debut in the AO playoff.
Gajdosova or Dokic should beat either of them and set up a big showdown with Dellacqua for a spot in the final.
On the other side of the draw it looks like the Rodionovas might steal the show, with Anastasia and Arina both in the draw on the same side.
Arina, who is in the top half, will face Sally Peers in the opening round. The Victorian – who won the ITF event in Perth – should comfortably defeat Peers to make the quarter-finals.
There she will potentially face Storm Sanders, who has been a revelation to the sport this season.
Ranked outside the top 700 at the start of the year, Sanders has climbed almost 500 spots to be 241 in the world heading into the playoff.
The 19 year old – who won her first ITF event in Launceston this year – made her debut at the Grand Slam level at the recent US Open. She will provide a stern test to Arina if she can defeat Kimberly Birrell in the opening round.
One of those two will make the semi-finals where they face a potential match-up against Anastasia Rodionova. She’ll face Jessica Moore in the opening round before facing a potential quarter-final against Viktorija Rajicic.
While both matches will be tough for Anastasia, her experience and her competitiveness should be enough to beat both competitors.
Rajicic has had a stellar 2013 and won her first two ITF titles in Sydney and in Bundaberg. She looks to be the real threat to Anastasia and if the Victorian is off her game, Rajicic will capitalise.
To me the semi-finals will be Jarmila Gajdosova v Casey Dellacqua and Arina Rodionova v Anastasia Rodionova.
The sisters have only met once, with Anastasia winning in Las Vegas last year with a retirement. If they meet again, it will be a cracking match between the two, with a big prize on the line.
Overall though, I believe Dellacqua will win the playoff in a repeat of her 2009 victory and book her spot in the Australian Open. She was the in-form player in the Pro Tour at the end of the year and has the best form out of the field.
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