16th seed Barbora Strycova is playing great so far, yet to lose a set despite a pretty tough draw. She defeated 24th seed Caroline Garcia 6-2 7-5, and her next opponent is World No. 2 and 22 time grand slam champion Serena Williams. The American leads the head-to-head 2-0, but it is made almost irrelevant by the time passed. Strycova in 2012, when both matches took place, was a very different player. Not only was she playing under a different name (Zahlavova Strycova or BZS for short), but she was also a player struggling in the 40-60 range of the rankings. Nowadays she is a much more consistent player, and has been a Top 20 player for a while now. The Czech player is definitely not without chance, and she might be the one who wins the first set from Serena at the 2017 Australian Open.
World No. 116 Jennifer Brady is now through to the second week, and her third week since she had to go through qualifying. There she already had tough matches against Kamenskaya, Stefkova and Townsend, all of whidh went 3 sets. The American then went on to easily beat Zanevska, go through a 2-6 7-6(3) 10-8 marathon against Heather Watson, and now she beat 14th seed Elena Vesnina 7-6(4) 6-2. Brady has an unusual game for a WTA player, putting a lot of topspin on her forehand and her serve. In the live ranking, Brady is at No. 79, which is higher than both Bencic and Bondarenko, who will experience major ranking drops following the Australian Open. Her next opponent will be Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, meaning that one of these players outside the Top 70 will be an Australian Open quarterfinalist. If Brady wins she will at least be No. 62 in the rankings.
34 year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni could already call this tournament a success for herself after the first round where she beat Qiang Wang. This was already Lucic-Baroni’s best Australian Open appearance since 1998, but she continued with an incredible 6-3 6-2 win over World No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska. Lucic-Baroni faced Maria Sakkari in the third round, who upset Alize Cornet in her previous match. Sakkari has been known for getting some solid slam results, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Croat, who took the match 3-6 6-2 6-3. If Lucic-Baroni wins her match against Brady, it will be be her best slam result since reaching Wimbledon semifinals in 1999, at the age of 17. Live ranking places Lucic-Baroni at No. 58, but with a win over Brady she will move to No. 45, which will be higher than players like Puig, Errani or Jankovic.
