Australian Open 2020 Women’s Singles Draw: Serena Could Face Osaka in Quarters

Friday, 17 January 2020, 5:54 am Disha Doshi

The Australian Open 2020 women’s singles draw has been revealed with world no.3 Naomi Osaka looking to defend her title and Serena Williams bidding for another Grand Slam to equal the all-time record.

Williams, one shy of Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slams, drew Russia’s Anastasia Potapova for the opening round.

With seven titles at the major, Williams stands to be one of the toughest competitors starting her year off with a win at the Auckland Open and reaching the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open last year. Placed in the same quarter as Osaka, Williams is projected to meet the defending champion early in the quarterfinals.

The youngest WTA player at the age of 15, Coco Gauff will face former world no.1, Venus Williams, in the first round. The two had earlier met at Wimbledon 2020 where Gauff had sent Venus packing.

Australia’s top seed and world no.1 Ashleigh Barty will take on the gargantuan task of becoming the first Australian to lift the trophy in 41 years and will open against Lesia Tsurenko.

The duo has met twice before with each winning against each other once. With an early meeting with Petra Kvitova or Alison Riske and projected semifinals against Osaka, the Australian has a tough path to victory with a possible final against Simona Halep or Karolina Pliskova.

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World no.2 Pliskova is set to face Kristina Mladenovic with Elena Svitolina opening against Katie Boulter.

Pliskova and Svitolina may face each other in the quarterfinals. The former may match-up against Halep in the semifinals.

Set to retire after the Australian Open, former world no.1 Caroline Wozniacki will play her first-round match against Kristie Ahn.

Wozniacki will probably face Dayana Yastremska and Johanna Konta in the future rounds culminating to a possible match against Williams in the fourth round of her ultimate tournament.

Simona Halep will face Jennifer Brady in the opening round who beat Barty and Maria Sharapova as a qualifier at the Brisbane International and a possible quarterfinals match against Belinda Bencic who opens against Anna Karolína Schmiedlová. Wild card entrant Sharapova will face 19th seed Donna Vekic in the first round.

Main draw matches begin on Monday, January 20.

About Disha Doshi 77 Articles

Disha is an undergraduate student of Political Science who is as passionate about tennis as world politics. She enjoys writing, occasionally watching cricket and football and loves sharing her opinions.