Serena Williams May Face Maria Sharapova in Australian Open Quarters

“From start to finish, these practice days are the important days of the tournament”.

Has she been able to train at 100 per cent leading up to Melbourne? We’ll get the answers in two weeks.

Though she had understood what she was doing herself, she had not noticed just how Williams was struggling opposite her. Perhaps at the 2015 French Open? “And I gave it back, so hopefully they’ll get it”, she said. The lack of match play might go against her, especially with big hitters Mirjana Lucic Baroni and (32) Caroline Garcia potentially down the line.

Williams pulled out of the lead-up Hopman Cup in Perth midway through her first match with soreness in the same left knee that troubled her during the US Open.

Shaughnessy came into the quarter-finals on an 11-match winning streak, but rarely looked like extending her run of victories as Williams eased into the last four. Camila Giorgi, a tiny but combative Italian, missed out on a seeding by just a single rankings place.

Can anyone stop “stratospheric” Djokovic? . So supreme is her talent and her ability to triumph in hard situations, even her actual level of tennis doesn’t always seem to be a significant roadblock to success as long as her head is screwed on. But if multiple boxes are left unticked in the final, then it’s open season and the rest of the WTA is set for a riot.

In the women’s draw, Second-seeded Simona Halep will open against a qualifier, while two-time champion and 14th-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who won last week’s Brisbane International and appears free from injury for the first time in several years, will play Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium. “She certainly loves Australia”.

The 34-year-old, also said that she is focusing on how to be fit and perform well, insisting that she didn’t have the match play she wanted to have.

Djokovic did not have it all his own way despite the scoreline, presenting Ferrer with nine break-point opportunities but fending off eight.

A huge forehand and steely determination have seen the 22-year-old Spaniard slip seamlessly into No. 3 in the world.

All this intrigue and speculation will quickly resolve itself if Williams comes out on Monday and blitzes Giorgi in time-honoured style. It has now cleared up, and we can prepare as we would wish to for the Australian Open. Nadal begins against Fernando Verdasco – who has beaten his compatriot in two of their past three encounters.

“I’m at 120, 130 percent right now”, she said to the media Saturday afternoon in Melbourne.

The site of some of Nadal’s most painful losses, could the Australian Open – which he won in 2009 – this year truly mark his revival?

Other interesting first-round matches include veteran women Daniela Hantuchova and Svetlana Kuznetsova duking it out, while on the men’s side, crowd favorite and one-time finalist in Melbourne, Marcos Baghdatis goes toe-to-toe with 9th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in what could prove to be a boil over.

As to the knee that has caused so much concern: “It’s actually really fine”.

He would have had some quality time with his son Stefan and wife Jelena and, as I put it to him at the French Open a year ago, his becoming a parent has made him far more risky. She narrowly escaped so many matches, down a set, down a set and a break.

Azarenka started 2016 impeccably, cruising to the title at a warmup in Brisbane by dropping a mere 17 games in five matches.