Day 1 of the 2015 Australian Open has to be some record with so many upsets on the women’s draw. By the end of first day’s play, 8 of the top seeds in the bottom half of the draw were ousted; that is half of the 16 that were originally slated there. The unseeded field seemed to have had no respect for the rankings as two of the casualties were well within the top-10. The winners of these upset matches played inspired tennis shocking their opponents into submission.
Upsets are not uncommon at the majors. In fact, they are to be expected. It does not come to mind an instant when the seeded players have progressed within a major according to their rankings when so much prestige, publicity and potential for more money are at stake. The top players are not alone in planning on peaking at these tournaments. It is the random nature of upsets that is so striking as one rarely knows why, when and where they will occur.
What is even more particular about upsets in tennis is that quite often, when a player score an upset particularly a huge one, for example in 2013 when Steven Darcis shocked Rafael Nadal in the 1st round of Wimbledon, that player often loses the next match. In fact, that player often shows up next match looking nothing like the supreme player he/she were the round before. Perhaps it is the over excitement of their victory or the huge media response or mental fatigue. Whatever the case may be, the player finds him/herself on the losing end of things. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to see how these 8 ladies who scored an upset win in the 1st round fared in the 2nd round. That is to say, “What happened to her after that big upset win?
The biggest upset of the tournament so far was that of Ana Ivanovic (5). She above all others was the most unexpected loss as she played so well leading up to this major. As a former finalist here back in 2008 and a major winner herself the same year at the French Open, some gave the Serbian an outside chance of collecting her second major title. However, Lucie Hradecka from the Czech Republic saw to it that Ivanovic would have to pursue that goal at another major event. Hradecka now faced Polona Hercog of Slovenia. Hradecka lost the opening set as did against Ivanovic but again came surging back strong as she won 4-6 6-3 6-2. Hradecka, long considered a doubles specialist, has made it clear after her 1st round victory that she intends to get her singles’ ranking back within the top 50. Winning matches at a major would definitely help in that pursuit.
Hradecka will face in the 3rd round another one of those “upset ladies” in the form of Germany’s Julia Goerges who took out Belinda Bencic (32). Goerges was up against Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic in the 2nd round and led by a set and a break, 6-3 2-1, before becoming unraveled. Koukalova seized the momentum and came back to take the 2nd set to force a third. However, Goerges righted her ship and near ran away with the decisive set as she served for it at 5-0. Koukalova made a desperate bid to stay alive in the match by breaking the German. Goerges performed better on her second bid to serve out the match as she took it 6-3 4-6 6-2.
Irina-Camila Begu of Romania had the second biggest upset on the women’s side when she ousted Angelique Kerber (9) in 3 sets. In her 2nd round match, the Romanian would only need 2 sets to take out Katerina Siniakova 7-5 6-4. She will take on another “upset lady”, Carina Witthoeft of Germany, who knocked out Carla Suarez-Narravo (17) in brilliant fashion 6-3 6-1. As she did in the 1st round, Witthoeft was simply ruthless in her play and she crushed American Christina McHale, 6-3 6-0. Witthoeft dropped only 3 points in the 2nd set.
Two very noticeable dismissals on Monday were that of Lucie Safarova (16) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (27) by Yaroslava Shvedova and Caroline Garcia respectively. Both Shvedova and Garcia won their 2nd round matches in straight sets. Shvedova took out Monica Puig 6-2 7-6 and Garcia beat Stephanie Voegele 6-3 6-4. Shvedova will play Shuai Peng (21) in the next round and Garcia will face Eugenie Bouchard (7).
Yanina Wickmayer who took out Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (23) in three sets, continued the trend of the “upset ladies” winning the next round. She again needed three sets to take out her opponent, Lara Arrubarrena, 6-4 4-6 6-4. Wickmayer will have to dig deep if she wants to make it to the Round of 16 as she would be facing the very formidable Sara Errani (14) in the 3rd round.
Unfortunately, it was not a “perfect storm” for the “upset ladies” as one of the eight did not make it to the 3rd round, Kristina Mladenovic. Mladenovic who beat Sabine Lisicki (28) in the earlier round, found herself up against the charismatic and enigmatic American, Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The two fought it out in two-tough-tiebreaker sets and Mladenovic lost them both. Mattek-Sands will need that same grit and much more if she wishes to beat her next opponent, Simona Halep (3).
Interesting enough, the bottom half on the women’s draw was relatively quiet throughout 2nd round play as there were no upsets on the day. There was a very near upset though as Maria Sharapova (2) had to save many crucial break points as well as two match points against Alexandra Panova who is ranked 150 in the world. Sharapova nonetheless moved through 6-1 4-6 7-5.
