The Australian Open has now moved into the quarterfinal round. While we’re left with an impressive core of players to compete for the ultimate prize, there has been a number of big Australian Open upsets in the first week. Venus Williams didn’t even survive the first round. Neither did another former No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki. Hometown hero and annual hopeful, Sam Stosur, also lost in the first round. Although she was only the No. 25 seed, she was a fan-favorite as the Aussies were hoping she might deliver more. The second round was also vicious, cutting off former Wimbledon champion and No. 6 seed, Petra Kvitova, No. 11 seed Timea Bacsinszky and 2014 semi-finalist, Eugenie Bouchard.
As we look back on the women’s tournament, let’s gain some perspective: What were the four biggest upsets from the first week of the tournament held in Melbourne Park?
1. Shuai Zhang over Simona Halep
One match which outstripped and exceeded all others in terms of its shock value was this one. Zhang was 0-14 in major matches – not the qualifying rounds of tournaments, but when the big tournament truly started with the first round. Zhang had never won a first-round match at one of the four Grand Slam events. She had never received a walkover or anything that would have enabled her to play in a second-round match. That’s a lot of times – 14 – without playing in a single second-round match at a major tournament. Naturally, as soon as Halep fans or any neutral parties saw the draw, they all thought, “Here comes 0-15. Zhang has not chance against the number two seed in the tournament and a realistic pick to win the title.” Yet, Zhang took advantage of the fact that Halep – perhaps bothered by injury, but not overwhelmingly so – did not hit a very hard or penetrating kind of shot. She blasted the ball harder than Halep and took the fight to the Romanian to the very end. It was something completely out of left field, but it happened, and it altered the complexion of the tournament. It is something which has created an unforeseen quarterfinal between Zhang and Jo Konta, one of the big surprises of the Australian Open.
2. Qiang Wang over Sloane Stephens
This is a result which also caught a lot of people off guard. Stephens had just won the Auckland, New Zealand, warm-up tournament before the Australian Open. She played with a lot of confidence in that tournament and what’s more is that she didn’t beat no-name players on the road to her title. She beat Caroline Wozniacki. Wang had not done a whole lot at major tournaments on the tour in general, so her victory blew a lot of people away – including Stephens but also a lot of experts. Stephens is deemed as one of the next great American tennis players but clearly she didn’t show her best stuff as she’ll be remembered as she’ll be filed with the biggest Australian Open upsets this year.
3. Barbora Strycova over Garbine Muguruza
One of the third-round matches which seemed interesting but was also not supposed to produce an upset was this one. Muguruza had attained a career-high world ranking and was coming off her most successful season to date. With a fresh start in 2016 after a chance to rest during the offseason, Muguruza expected to be good enough to meet Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round. However, Strycova knocked her off one round earlier. A lot of fans were disappointed by this, because they wanted to see Muguruza-Azarenka, but the No. 3 seed realized that she has a lot of work to do in order to stay in the top five of the rankings.
4. Anna-Lena Friedsam over Roberta Vinci
This is a matchup in which a mismatch existed. The veteran, Vinci, bageled Friedsam in the first set. Whenever a first set goes 6-0, the winning player has to be seen as the overwhelming favorite. Instead, however, Vinci – who had recently made the U.S Open final – got blown off the court by Friedsam, who did not make a lot of deep runs in tournaments last year. That was a very unexpected surprise from week one of the Australian Open in 2016.
