Australian Open 2015: Americans with the Best Chance of Reaching Week 2
The Americans did well to reach Round 2, but how many will advance to Week 2?
Of course there’s Serena Williams, the heavy favorite to win the entire tournament, but she and her sister Venus, as well as Varvara Lepchenko, remain the only seeded American women among the sorority of first-round survivors.
The men? Their hope lies, as it does at every Grand Slam, on John Isner’s big serve. The 6’10” bomber lit up Jimmy Wang for 31 aces in his first-round match.
The women lost Sloane Stephens to the wrath of unseeded Victoria Azarenka, and Taylor Townsend bowed out thanks to the resurgent Caroline Wozniacki. There's still a smattering of American women who can make it through the third round.
Not all of them stand the greatest of chances of winning their third-round matches and reaching Week 2, so here are the ones who could.
Irina Falconi
1 of 5
One of the better chances of seeing an American woman—outside of the Williams sisters—reaching Week 2 comes out of the Petra Kvitova quarter of the bracket. Three Americans fight for a chance to move into the later rounds.
Americans Irina Falconi and Madison Brengle face off in the second round. Brengle has the slight edge over Falconi, who played into this tournament as a wild card, by a score of 3-2. In their first-round matches, Falconi had just six unforced errors while Brengle committed 44.
Brengle definitely attacks more (she had 27 winners in her match as compared to Falconi's five), but with high reward comes risk. Falconi may be able to withstand the onslaught.
Should Falconi win, she can boast having a 2-0 advantage over her possible third-round opponent, fellow American Coco Vandeweghe.
First, Vandeweghe needs to get by Samantha Stosur, an Australian as the No. 20 seed. The two are 1-1 against each other, with the last match going to Vandeweghe. No matter who wins between Stosur and Vandeweghe, either will play against an American in the third round.
A win by Vandeweghe in the second round, at the very least, assures an American beyond a Williams will stay for Week 2 in Melbourne. The slight edge goes to Falconi with the cleanliness of her game.
Varvara Lepchenko
2 of 5
There are your shoo-ins for reaching the second week, and then there are your underdogs. Enter Varvara Lepchenko.
The No. 30 seed will get a full helping of kielbasa when Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska—and her new coach Martina Navratilova—come crashing in the third round.
What chance does Lepchenko have? She’s 2-5 head-to-head against Radwanska, but those two wins came in their most recent encounters in the Round of 16 at Stanford and the quarterfinals in Seoul. Lepchenko needed three sets both times.
Lepchenko’s deepest run in a Grand Slam was a fourth-round run in the 2012 French Open. Meeting Radwanska in the third round is brutal because Radwanska appears more serious than ever, which doesn’t bode well for Lepchenko.
Venus Williams
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Venus Williams, the No. 18 seed, has a fairly easy road to the second week of this major. She breezed through her first-round match two-and-two and won’t face another seeded player until Lepchenko or Radwanska in the quarterfinals.
Williams told WTATennis.com:
"I'm creeping closer. I did enter the Top 20 again. But I had some issues, and now I'm back again, and I'd like to think that moving forward I have a lot of good days ahead of me in terms of health. I think also learning to manage things, because it's a mental challenge when you don't feel well.
I think I'm learning to manage that a lot better.
"
Williams faced Radwanska—her likely quarterfinal opponent—in a hard-court final in Montreal last year and lost in straight sets.
Williams is playing her best tennis in quite some time and will earn a bid into Week 2.
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John Isner
4 of 5
How sad is the state of American men’s tennis when Isner’s bid into Week 2 is seen as a victory and the lone beacon of light?
Isner remains the only hope for American men entering the second week of a major tennis tournament.
He’s big enough and strong enough to roll through three rounds, but he can never seem to break through into that more skilled and nuanced level.
Isner did reach the quarterfinals of the French Open a year ago, but beyond that, he didn’t make it past the third round in any other major. Isner does have a favorable matchup in the third round if he ends up facing Roberto Bautista Agut.
Isner is 2-0 against Agut, though he did need three sets each time to put away the Spaniard. If Isner can pop off 31 aces every match like he did in the first round, then maybe he stands a chance at reaching Week 2.
Serena Williams
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Serena Williams will meet her first seeded opponent in the third round. There she will likely see Elina Svitolina, the No. 24 seed. Svitolina, with apologies to the United States, will defeat American Nicole Gibbs to reach the third round, thus culling one more American from the field.
Williams is 1-0 head-to-head against Svitolina and looked like the champion she is after her first-round win.
"I felt okay," Williams said on WTATennis.com. "As always, I had the jitters going out in the first match of a Grand Slam. It's never super easy to be the one that everyone wants to beat. So I always have to be a little bit above. But yeah, I felt okay. I definitely think I can improve a tremendous amount though."
Williams is a lock to reach Week 2. It’s just a matter of how deep she’ll progress. If the seeded women keep winning (which is a stretch after what happened on Day 1), Williams could face No. 11 Dominika Cibulkova, No. 19 Alize Cornet, No. 8 seed Wozniacki or a scary unseeded Azarenka in the quarterfinals.
At this point, it’s too early to forecast how Williams will fare against these talented women, but the odds are always in her favor.
All head-to-heads came from WTATennis.com and ATPWorldTour.com. I hang out on Twitter @BrendanOMeara. Come say hi.
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