Aussie Open Preview

Here is my brief preview, or more like notes, on the 2015 Australian Open...

Here are the big points defenders for last year:

Men
F - Wawrinka def. Nadal
SF - Federer, Berdych
QF - Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer, Dimitrov

Women
F - Li def. Cibulkova
SF - Radwanska, Bouchard
QF - Halep, Ivanovic, Pennetta, Azarenka

Former men's champs in the draw: Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Wawrinka
Former women's champs in the draw: Serena, Sharapova, Azarenka
Former boy's champs in the draw: Baghdatis, Monfils, Young, Tomic, Bhambri, Vesely, Saville, Kyrgios
Former girl's champs in the draw: Lucic-Baroni, Jankovic, Zahlavova Strycova, Azarenka, Pavlyuchenkova, Ka.Pliskova, Mestach, Townsend, Konjuh

American participants (7 men, 17 women), from top to bottom in the draw - no qualifiers:
-19-Isner, w-Kudla, Young, Querrey, Johnson, q-Smyczek, q-Russell
-1-Serena, Gibbs, q-Tatishvili, Stephens, Townsend, Keys, Vandeweghe, w-Falconi, Brengle, Davis, 18-Venus, 30-Lepchenko, Rogers, Riske, Min, Mattek-Sands, McHale

First time seeds:20-Goffin, 27-Cuevas, 22-Ka.Pliskova, 26-Svitolina, 31-Diyas, 32-Bencic

Potential quarterfinal matchups:

-Djokovic vs Raonic
-Wawrinka vs Nishikori
-Nadal vs Berdych
-Federer vs Murray

-Serena vs Wozniacki
-Kvitova vs Radwanska
-Halep vs Ivanovic
-Sharapova vs Bouchard

Battle for #1:
Men - Djokovic has a sizable lead and will maintain #1 if he reaches the semis.  If he loses before the semis, Federer can take #1 if he wins the title.
Women - 4 players in the running (Serena 7786, Sharapova 7105, Halep 6360, Kvitova 6151).  If Sharapova wins the title, she would be world no. 1.  For Halep or Kvitova to get there, Serena and Sharapova (in Kvitova's case) would need to lose fairly early one.

My quick predictions:
-I have picked Djokovic to win the title but I wouldn't be surprised in Wawrinka was able to beat him in the SF and defend his title.  Nadal will get more dangerous as the tournament goes on if he can get past Youzhny and then potentially Rosol.  I wouldn't like his chances though against Djokovic.
-Serena is probably the favorite but there is enough question marks to say this is a really wide open tournament. I've actually picked Wozniacki to finally get past Serena (in the QF) and win her 1st major.  The big wild card here is Azarenka, who players Stephens and then possibly Wozniacki.  Also look out for Safarova in the bottom half.
-The Americans actually have a favorable draw for the men and women with several playing qualifiers.  Look for a number of women to reach the 3rd and even 4th rounds (they have the 2 highest ranked unseeded players: Stephens and Keys).  Also I like Venus to reach the QF at least.  I don't expect much from the men since they are far too inconsistent and there is only 7 of them draw (only 4 by direct entry which has to be some kind of record low) but most of them, Isner and Johnson in particular, have an opportunity.