Only one Australian Open champion from the past nine years is in the 2023 field. That’s Sofia Kenin, your 2020 winner, who is ranked No.280 going into last week’s tournament in Hobart.
The champion Down Under in 2012 and 2013, Victoria Azarenka, 33, happens to be playing Kenin in Monday’s first round. Yes, the only former Australian Open winners in the draw meet in the third match in Margaret Court Arena.
The recent turnover in women’s tennis, as well as the timing, is intriguing.
Serena Williams (2015 and 2017) has retired, as have Li Na (2014), Caroline Wozniacki (2018) and, most recently, Ashleigh Barty (2022). Angelique Kerber (2016) is due with her first child in the spring. Naomi Osaka (2019 and 2021) is also expecting and will miss the entire 2023 season.
Kenin had a terrific week in Hobart, advancing to the semifinals, her first trip to the final four of a tour-level event since 2020. The wild card fell in three sets to Elisabetta Cocciaretto in three sets.
Kerber and Osaka, who have both indicated they will return to the Hologic WTA Tour after giving birth, will be encouraged by the play of Azarenka after she brought Leo into the world in 2016. She won the 2020 Western & Southern Open (played in New York because of the pandemic) and, at the age of 31, advanced to the finals of the US Open. In 2021, Azarenka took the title at Indian Wells.
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The head-to-head is 1-1, but they were two very different matches. Kenin took the 2019 quarterfinal match in Acapulco in three sets. Azarenka bounced back a year later in Rome -- defeating Kenin 6-0, 6-0.
There are 31 other matches on tap Monday in Melbourne. Here are few of the more notable encounters:
No.1 Iga Swiatek vs. Jule Niemeier
This reprises their only meeting, in the fourth round of the 2022 US Open, won by the eventual champion, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. Swiatek is looking to win her fourth Grand Slam singles title in the 12th contested of this decade. Only Margaret Court (1970s), Chris Evert (1980s) and Monica Seles (1990s) have won more.
The first Slam of the year is almost upon us ⏳
— wta (@WTA) January 14, 2023
What the seeds had to say at the #AusOpen Media Day 🗣️👇
No.3 Jessica Pegula vs. Jaqueline Cristian
Pegula has won her last eight first-round matches at the majors and saved the most break points (81) in last year’s Grand Slams of any woman. She was second to Swiatek in 2022 major match wins, 21 to 14.
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No.6 Maria Sakkari vs. Yuan Yue
Sakkari comes off a successful United Cup run for Greece, where she won three of four matches. These two have never played.
No.7 Coco Gauff vs. Katerina Siniakova
Gauff won the first three meetings, but lost the last one, in Billie Jean King Cup play last November.
No.15 Petra Kvitova vs. Alison Van Uytvanck
Kvitova began the season winning four of five matches, but the head-to-head is 1-1, with Van Uytvanck winning their last meetings in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics Round of 16.
No.25 Marie Bouzkova vs. Bianca Andreescu
Andreescu, currently ranked No.42, won the first two matches between them but Bouzkova took the most recent meeting -- in the 2021 Melbourne 250.
