The women have made it through the first week of the 2018 Australian Open. Who made headlines for all the wrong reasons in the Australian Open, thereby forcing the Indian Wells-Miami swing to become a lot more important in reversing the early trend of the season? Let’s take a closer look at the biggest disappointments.
Sloane Stephens
To be fair to Stephens, she is trying to make her way back and play her way into form following a knee injury. She had reason to think that she would not play at her best in Australia. Yet, she did serve for the match in the first round, at 5-4 in the second set, but failed to do so and found a way to lose. That is the heart of her disappointment in Melbourne, one which should not be shrugged off too casually. This is not a disaster, but Stephens should have gotten through round one and given herself a chance to see what she could do in round two.
Petra Kvitova
It is true that Kvitova remains one of the bravest and most courageous athletes in all of sports for so gracefully returning from an in-home attack that injured her and could have taken her life. Kvitova’s comfort with holding a racquet has not been very substantial in the months after her attack, and that has to be put in perspective. However, even then, it has to rate as something of a disappointment for Kvitova to have lost to Andrea Petkovic early in the tournament. Kvitova had a chance to face World No. 1 Simona Halep in the third round of this tournament. At her previous major tournament, the 2017 U.S. Open, Kvitova defeated Garbine Muguruza – who was playing the best tennis in the world at the time – in the fourth round. Playing Halep would have given her a similar challenge, the kind any great player lives for. Not being able to at least play Halep makes this Australian Open a failure for Kvitova.
Julia Goerges
The German brought a double-digit match winning streak into Australia and – after winning her first-round match – pushed that streak to 15 consecutive matches. However, she stumbled in the second round against Alize Cornet. Goerges was a popular pick to make a run into the second week, possibly as deep as the semifinals, but she has not done well at majors throughout her career. This result will only reinforce her past and hurt her confidence for when she tries to make another run at a major tournament in the spring (at Roland Garros) or in the summer (at Wimbledon). This abruptly halted her momentum and will force Goerges to re-evaluate her game.
Garbine Muguruza
The Spaniard was dealing with blisters and the heat in her second-round match against Hsieh Su-Wei, but even then, a lot of tennis players have to deal with those kinds of conditions. Their feet get torn up, and heat is a constant reality of life on the tennis tour. Muguruza’s inability to fight through those problems against a 32-year-old journeywoman is not the circumstance in which most people expected Muguruza to lose. She has to get back to establishing good habits and competitive instincts, which were so abundant last year when winning Wimbledon and then Cincinnati.
Maria Sharapova
We continue to have high hopes for Maria Sharapova but maybe it’s time to rethink that. Once one of the best players on the WTA Tour, she’s been very sluggish since her return from suspension. The 2018 Australian Open afforded her the chance to show some signs of life but that never came to be. Instead, she was cut off before the second week.
The concern has to be her showing too. A close loss would have been understandable. Instead, she was flattened by Angeliqe Kerber, winning just four games the entire match. Sharapova can only go up from here. The main concern is that she won’t be able to make it up much further than where she is now.
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