US Open champion Sam Stosur has been handed a nightmare draw for the Australian Open that starts at Melbourne Park on Monday. The Australian has been out of touch, with early exits from Brisbane and Sydney, so she hardly needed to face Sorana Cirstea in the opening round.
If she dodges that bullet, she meets Nadia Petrova, the experienced 29th seed, in the second round. That makes three Aussie girls in the bottom quarter, with Jelena Dokic, and Jarmila Gajdosova.
Dokic has a tough opening round as well, with Russian Anna Chakvetadze, and if she survives, ninth-seed Marion Bartoli.
Gajdosova has 27th seed Maria Kirilenko first up, who will take a power of beating.
World number one for 68 weeks, Caroline Wozniacki has yet to win a Slam, but she has two more Aussies in her cross-hairs – Anastasia Rodionova in the opening round, and the 15-year-old Wimbledon junior girls champion Ashleigh Barty in the second.
But former champion Maria Sharapova, the fourth seed, will have her hands full with Gisela Dulko first up.
A vastly different story for defending champion Kim Clijsters. third seed Victoria Azarenko, fifth seed Li Na, eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanski, 10th seed Francesca Schiavone, and 12th seed, the four-time champion Serena Williams, who shouldn’t have any problems reaching the third round.
Anyone who wants to back against the fiercely competitive Serena does so at their own peril.
In the men’s, giant-killing Aussie teenager Bernard Tomic has drawn the mighty tough Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, seeded 22 and a much better player than that. And if Tomic survives that opening round, he gets the giant heavy-serving American Sam Querry in the second.
Perennial crowd favourite Lleyton Hewitt meets Germany’s Marcel Stebe in the first round, and if successful, has seventh-seed Andy Roddick in the second. Not much joy there either.
Promising Aussie teenager Matthew Ebden, ranked 97, takes on the 106-ranked Brazilian Joao Souza with every chance to advance.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer have arm-chair rides to the third round. But fourth-seed Andy Murray has to contend with American teenager Ryan Harrison first up, ranked in the top 100, who will be hard to put away as Murray is a slow starter.
Having said that, expect bigger things from Murray, a three-time Slam final loser, now he has legend Ivan Lendl in his corner.
The sleeper, Argentinean Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion on the comeback trail from injury, has a relatively smooth passage to the fourth round.
Matt F
Roar Guru
Yep well called David. I still don't think it was a very tough draw for a 6th seed but it was clearly too tough for Sam. She was thoroughly outplayed.
mds1970
Roar Guru
I didn't think the draw was too bad, but David must have had some sort of intuition that Stosur would struggle against Cirstea. Well tipped David.
Malibu77
Guest
Matthew Ebden was born in 1987 which makes him 24. So sorry David, but not a teenager. And Petrova is possible 3rd round opponent for Stosur, not 2nd.
Mark
Guest
It is a great draw for Stosur... she will win her first round and will easily win her second round giving her the confidence she needs. IF Petrova reaches the 3rd round, she will have her covered as well, Petrova hasn't played any lead up tournaments and she is a player who has a topsy turvy formline. Bartoli is a great 4th round opponent as her kick serve will trouble the double handed french woman, which then leaves a QF against Kvitova, a player who is definitely beatable.
Matt F
Roar Guru
Sam could have had a much, much worse draw. This isn't that bad at all. She's never lost to Cristea so, whilst she could have gotten a qualifier, it's hardly a nightmare first round. Also Sam doesn't play Petreova in the 2nd round, she is drawn to play either Urzula Radwanska (ranked 99) or Alison Riske (ranked 137.) Because they're both seeds, Sam can't meet Petrova until the 3rd round, which is when the seeds are drawn to meet (assuming everything goes according to plan) and out of 32 seeds I'd say being drawn against seed 29 is pretty good. Bartoli and Kvitova aren't easy opponents and they may be her 4th round and QF draws but when if you get to that stage of a grand slam, there aren't any easy matches. Overall I'd say that this is actually quite a good draw for Sam, at least for the first week.
mds1970
Roar Guru
There are no certainties in sport, that's one reason we love it - but if the world rankings are any guide whatsoever then Stosur shouldn't have too much trouble with Cirstea. Stosur has won every previous meeting between them. And although Stosur hasn't been setting the world on fire in the lead-up to the Open, neither has Cirstea. I'm not sure what time you wrote the article, and the article may have already been submitted when it happened; but we go back to there being no certainties in sport. When you list Ashleigh Barty as being in Caroline Wozniacki's cross-hairs for the second round - Barty was eliminated in the first round yesterday evening.
TS
Guest
She "hardly needed to face Cirstea"? That's the great thing about journalism, especially online, you can say whatever you want whether it makes any sense or not, without providing a shred of evidence. Sam has beaten Cirstea every time they've played. Give me one actual concrete reason why Cirstea is any kind of threat, please. You do have to feel sorry for Sam. You should never admit your limitations to the world at large, because people smell fear and start sharpening their knives, especially the media, they have someone's career to destroy.