By
FOLKERT HESSE
Today I want to take a look at the women’s draw of the 2010 US-Open.
It will be almost as interesting and wide open as the men’s draw, because Serena Williams and Justin Henin will miss the event due to injuries. This makes last years finalist and world no. 2, Caroline Wozniacki the top seed and one of the favorites for the title. It would be her first Grand Slam title and bring her very close to the no. 1 ranking as well. On top of that it will make her a lot richer, since she won the US-Open Series already and this will guarantee her an extra 1 Million Dollars if she takes the US-Open title. But her draw is not easy and it will be the question if she will be abler to handle the pressure of going into the tournament as the top seed or if the pressure and additional attention from the media will be too much for her. Winning the US-Open Series and last years experience of being in the finals will give her a lot of confidence and help her to handle all this.
But I still don’t see her reaching the final, because she will face some tough competition before she will reach a potential match-up with Maria Sharapova in round 4. And I see Maria winning this one in a thrilling night session. But before Wozniacki gets there she will have her hands full with some powerful tennis made in China. Kai-Chen Chang and Yuang-Jan Chan, both from Chinese Taipee, will test Mrs Wozniacki to the limit, because they have even better footwork than the blond Dane. It will not be enough to just keep the ball in play to beat these two great competitors from Taipee. And you never know, maybe one of the two will be the big story of this year’s Open, and take out both, Mrs. Denmark and Mrs. Russia and go all the way to the final!?!
But in the quartefinal there might be not another Mrs. Russia waiting, but at least great Russian footwork from Kuznetsova and more Chinese power footwork, in person of the no 8 seed, Na Li. So it is very likely that there will be a Chinese player reaching the semi finals from this section of the draw.
But today I would put my money on Mrs. Sharapova. She won the Open before, is in form and has the power to beat all the Chinese and Danish roadrunners.
In the next section of the draw, things look a lot clrearer to me, with jelena Jankovic being the highest seed here. She has a tough first round with Simona Halep and maybe a another tricky one with hard hitting Mirjana Lucic, but I think she will go through to face Janina Wickmayer from Belgium, last year’s surprise semi finalist, in the fourth round. This is a good match-up for her and she will win in two sets to face either Nadia Petrova or Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals. That will be a big fight for sure, but Jelena’s fitness will win the match for her.
The next section is the Venus Williams Section, which is also a very tough and open one, because there are plenty of up-coming players in this section. Very unpredictable, what is going to happen here!
Melanie Oudin, Polona Hercog, Tsvetlana Pironkova, Ksenia Pervak, Michelle Larcher de Brito and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will challenge the established players like Wiliams, Schiavone, Peer and Azarenka (who is also still very young…). This could be very likely a new face in a Grand Slam semi final. But if Venus is healthy, she will have the power to fight them all off and reach the semis, winning her quarterfinal match against Victoria Azarenka. But any of the new girls will make a break through soon. S, it could also be Larcher de Brito against Hercog… If de Brito screams her way to the semis, the WTA tour has a new star and Portugal a new heroe after Ronaldo choked at the World Cup…
But my money still goes to Venus here!
The last section of the draw holds the top 2 title favorites and a lot of headache players…
I see the highest seed in this section as the top favorites win the whole thing. That would be Sam Stosur and Kim Clijsters, the defending champion. They will for sure meet in the quarterfinals, and I believe that the winner will take the title. Stosur has only one really tough match to get to the quarters and might have to play Safina (who should get her act together soon again..), Elena Dementieva or Daniela Hantuchova, But she is my favorite against each one of them, since all these players are very unstable and will cause their coaches a lot more headaches in the future. Kim Clijsters will face Marion Bartoli or Ana Ivanovic (another headache for coaches…) in her quarterfinal match, but if she is motivated and focused she will win easily.
My Money would go to Kim to reach the semi final, too, but I would rather like to see these two in the final…
If I have to put my money for the final and the winner, it would be Kim over Maria in three sets.
Let’s see if I am right and enjoy the Open!
H. F. HESSE
HESSE TENNIS TRAINING
High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals
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