Australian Open 2021: Serena Williams with Naomi Osaka and Halep!

The women's singles draw of the Australian Open 2021, first Slam of the season was raffled off. Ashleigh Barty and Simona Halep are the top two favorites of the seeding. The first is trying to pick up the pace after almost a year of, with Sofia Kenin, defending champion, Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams and Simona Halep as favorites for the final victory.

Serena Williams' draw kicks off with German Laura Siegemund. Theoretically, the problems for the American should be fairly narrow at least until the fourth round, where she would nibble on Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, one to whom she must pay particular attention in this tournament. The Canadian Bianca Andreescu could be in the quarter-finals, but also Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber, projected towards the Japanese Naomi Osaka, on the same side of Simona Halep.

World no.1 Ashleigh Barty, will start from Montenegrin Danka Kovinic. Her draw could live on from the derby with Daria Gavrilova in the second round, but in general she is quite favorable at least until the fourth round where Karolina Pliskova could be, with whom she leads 4-2 in the head-to-head.

The 2020 winner, the American Sofia Kenin was drawn into Barty's semi-final side, and in fact, she finds herself in a situation fraught with danger after the easy debut: one between Latvian Anastasija Sevastova and Estonian Kaia Kanepi, then a between Nadia Podoroska from Argentina or Donna Vekic from Croatia.

The 2021 women’s main draw @AustralianOpen. pic.twitter.com/JodhXuGwKn

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) February 5, 2021

Australian Open women's singles draw

Top-Half

Barty (AUS) (1) -Kovinic (MNE) Sorribes Tormo (ESP) -Gavrilova (AUS) (WC) Zheng (CHN) -Krejcikova (CZE) Trevisan (ITA) -Alexandrova (RUS) (29)

Kontaveit (EST) (21) -Sasnovich (BLR) Kr. Pliskova (CZE) -Watson (GBR) Jones (GBR) (Q) -Rogers (USA) Danilovic (SRB) (Q) -Martic (CRO) (16)

Bencic (SUI) (11) -Davis (USA) Kuznetsova (RUS) -Strycova (CZE) Zhu (CHN) -Osuigwe (USA) (Q) Fernandez (CAN) -Mertens (BEL) (18)

Muchova (CZE) (25) -Ostapenko (ALAT) Barthel (GER) -Cocciaretto (ITA) (Q) Collins (USA) -Bogdan (ROU) Paolini (ITA) -Ka. Pliskova (CZE) (6)

Kenin (USA) (4) -Inglis (AUS) (WC) Sevastova (LAT) -Kanepi (EST) Podoroska (ARG) -McHale (USA) Y. Wang (CHN) -Vekic (CRO) (28)

Brady (USA) (22) -Bolsova (ESP) Brengle (USA) -Ar. Rodionova (AUS) (WC) Paquet (FRA) (Q) -Sherif (EGY) (Q) Juvan (SLO) (Q) -Konta (GBR) (13)

Azarenka (BLR) (12) -Pegula (USA) Aiava (AUS) (WC) -Stosur (AUS) (WC) Hibino (JPN) -Sharma (AUS) (WC) Mladenovic (FRA) -Sakkari (GRE) (20)

Putintseva (KAZ) (26) -Stephens (USA) Van Uytvanck (BEL) -Burel (FRA) (Q) Gauff (USA) -Teichmann (SUI) Bouzkova (CZE) -Svitolina (UKR) (5)

Bottom-Half

Andreescu (CAN) (8) -Buzarnescu (ROU) (LL) Hsieh (TPE) -Pironkova (Q) Flipkens (BEL) -V. Williams (USA) Errani (ITA) (Q) -Q. Wang (CHN) (30)

Vondrousova (CZE) (19) -Peterson (SWE) Marino (CAN) (Q) -Birrell (AUS) (WC) Tig (ROU) -Cirstea (ROU) Minnen (BEL) (Q) -Kvitova (CZE) (9)

Muguruza (ESP) (14) -Gasparyan (RUS) (LL) Samsonova (RUS) (Q) -Badosa (ESP) Diyas (KAZ) -Zidansek (SLO) Pear (USA) -Kerber (GER) (22)

Jabeur (TUN) (27) -Petkovic (GER) Hibi (JPN) (Q) -Schmiedlova (SVK) (LL) Hercog (SLO) -Garcia (FRA) Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) -Osaka (JPN) (3)

Sabalenka (BLR) (7) -Kuzmova (SVK) Boluter (GBR) -Kasatkina (RUS) Cornet (FRA) -Savinykh (RUS) (Q) Li (USA) -Zhang (CHN) (31)

Riske (USA) (24) -Potapova (RUS) Babos (HUN) (Q) -Bonaventure (BEL) (LL) Stojanovic (SRB) -Begu (ROU) Siegemund (GER) -S. Williams (USA) (10)

Swiatek (POL) (15) -Rus (NED) Shvedova (KAZ) -Giorgi (ITA) Iron (FRA) -Siniakova (CZE) Zvonareva (RUS) -Rybakina (KAZ) (17)

Kudermetova (RUS) (32) -Kostyuk (UKR) Gracheva (RUS) -Bllinkova (RUS) Doi (JPN) -Tomljanovic (SRB) Cabrera (AUS) (WC) -Halep (ROU) (2)

Fourth round theoretical

[1] A. Barty vs [16] P. Martic [11] B. Bencic vs [6] Ka. Pliskova [4] S. Kenin vs [13] J. Konta [12] V. Azarenka vs [5] E. Svitolina

[8] B. Andreescu vs [9] P. Kvitova [14] G. Muguruza vs [3] N. Osaka [7] A. Sabalenka vs [10] S. Williams [15] I. Swiatek vs [2] S. Halep

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3cD05GW