Women’s field wide open with Serena on sidelines
Top-seeded Halep looks to capture her 1st Grand Slam title
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA >> Without defending champion Serena Williams in the draw at the Australian Open, there’s certainly an opportunity for another player to go on a surprising run and emerge as a first-time Grand Slam champion.
Sloane Stephens and Jelena Ostapenko did it last year.
Just don’t describe the first Grand Slam of the year as “more open” than usual.
“Whenever I get asked that question, it always comes across in really kind of an almost negative way instead of acknowledging how many great players we have,” Johanna Konta, who reached the semifinals of Wimbledon last year, said in her pre-tournament news conference Saturday (Australia time).
“The depth in women’s tennis, I really do believe in the last few years, has gotten so strong,” she added. “There’s no straight sailing to the quarters or semis. It doesn’t exist.”
Stephens agrees the Australian Open field is still extremely tough, even without Williams, the 23time major winner. Williams withdrew from the tournament to recover from health issues after a complicated childbirth in September.
“There’s a lot of great players,” Stephens said. “It’s up for grabs.”
A new face will be holding the trophy at Melbourne Park in two weeks. The No. 1-ranking changed seven times in 2017, with five different women assuming top spot — three for the first time.
Top-ranked Simona Halep is looking to finally break through and win her first major after twice finishing runner-up. She won the season-opening Shenzhen Open in China, but has mixed results at Melbourne Park, losing in the first round the past two years.
“I don’t feel pressure. I feel OK. I feel fit. I feel ready to start,” Halep said. “I have one more goal: to win a Grand Slam.”
Stephens made a stellar run to the U.S. Open title after missing several months with an injured left foot. She’s struggled to adjust to the sudden stardom that’s come with being a Grand Slam champion — losing seven straight matches since September — but believes she can find her game again in Melbourne.
“I think it’s always a tough transition when you go from not playing tennis for 11 months to winning a Grand Slam,” she said. “I like to just stay in my own little bubble and do my own thing. … It’s kind of been what I’m trying to do.”
There are plenty of other contenders. Ostapenko, now 20, rocketed up the rankings after her stunning win at the French Open. Venus Williams is a threat at 37 years old after finishing runner-up to her sister last year. Angelique Kerber, the 2016 Australian Open winner, won the Sydney International title on Saturday.
Garbine Muguruza is the reigning Wimbledon champion, though her health has been in question at the start of the new year. Caroline Wozniacki had a career-reviving 2017 season and could return to the No. 1 ranking for the first time in six years with a strong showing in Melbourne.
Maria Sharpova, the 2008 winner, returns after missing last year’s Australian Open because of a drug suspension.
And then there’s Elina Svitolina, who earned her 10th tour title last week at the Brisbane International. She has a shot at No. 1 during the Australian Open.
“I had a great week in Brisbane. Of course, I’m confident,” she said.
But she added that isn’t enough in the constantly shifting, ultra-competitive women’s game.
“Everyone wants to win a Grand Slam,” Svitolina said. “So, I try to find my way, what can help me to be there, to be ready for the fight.”
• Atherson’s CiCi Bellis opens her Australian Open with a first-round match against 30thseeded Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands. Bellis is ranked 46th in the world, Bertens 31st.
Men
Novak Djokovic is back from six months off the tour with a remodeled service motion partly inspired by Andre Agassi and a growing confidence he can get his sore right elbow through the Australian Open.
No man has more Australian Open titles than Djokovic, who has six in all and — until last year’s shocking second-round exit — had won five of the six contested from 2011 to 2016.
Djokovic is seeded 14th and will be coming off just a couple of exhibition matches to prepare for his first-round encounter against Donald Young.
The 12-time major winner is in the same quarter as No. 4 Alexander Zverev, No. 5 Dominic Thiem and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka, who confirmed Saturday he’d return at Melbourne Park from his own six-month layoff following surgery on his left knee.
They’re all in the same half of the draw as defending champion Roger Federer, who last year returned from an extended injury time out to beat Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final. Federer went on to win Wimbledon for his 19th major and finished the year ranked No. 2 behind Nadal, who won the French and U.S. Open titles.
That is giving Djokovic some hope.
“I mean, Roger and Rafa’s year last year has shown age is just a number, especially in Roger’s case,” Djokovic said Saturday in his pre-tournament news conference. “I mean, he’s a great example of someone that manages to take care of himself, knows how to prepare well and peak at the right time.
“He won a couple Grand Slams. Who would predict that after his six months of absence, so … everything is possible really.”
Djokovic had contested 51 consecutive Grand Slams until he missed last year’s U.S. Open during his rehabilitation.
Off the court, the 30-year-old Serbian said he enjoyed a closer-to-normal family life off the court, including being there when his wife, Jelena, gave birth to their second child — a daughter Tara in September.
On the court, he used the time to work closely with coaches Agassi and Radek Stepanek to refine his service motion to improve the technique and “release the load from the elbow, obviously something that I have to do because I have the injury.”
Now it’s a less dramatic, more compact swing and he was happy with how it worked in an exhibition win over Thiem earlier in the week.
Djokovic said his elbow wasn’t 100 percent rehabilitated, but he was convinced by medical experts that he wouldn’t do any further damage by playing in Australia.
Injuries to leading players have been a focus of attention in Australia. Nadal is returning from a lingering right knee problem and five-time finalist Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori have already withdrawn.
In recent months, meanwhile, ATP Finals winner Grigor Dimitrov and Zverev have moved up to No. 3 and No. 4 in the rankings, respectively, and are growing in confidence that they’re on the cusp of Grand Slam breakthroughs.