Top seeded Americans, Sock and Williams, start their bid for the 2018 Australian Open title later today on day one of the tournament.
The excitement starts right away with last year’s finalist, 5th seeded Venus Williams, facing off against former top ten player, Belinda Bencic. While Bencic’s ranking has dropped precipitously due to injury, she is on her way back. The Swiss has won three consecutive tournaments, which has propelled her back into the top one hundred. Williams leads their head-to-head 4:0, but is that relevant given that Bencic is in form and they have not played since 2015?
Williams had a huge season last year, but the question is – has she recovered fully for the 2018 season? She played only one match so far and lost a three set battle to the eventual champion, Angelique Kerber.
The 10th seed, Coco Vandeweghe, will be tested by the always dangerous, Timea Babos.
The 24th seed, Dominika Cibulkova, will have a fight against the resurgent Kaia Kanepi.
Can Catherine Bellis get her first victory at the Australian Open by upsetting the 30th seed, Kiki Bertens?
The 8th seeded American, Jack Sock, will find his bid to win his first major in singles complicated by the obstacle of his first round opponent. Yuichi Sugita won their only previous encounter last year.
Two young guns, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov, will battle for the right to get to the second round of the Australian Open for the first time. Who will rise to the occasion?
The 11th seed, Kevin Anderson, will have his hands full with Kyle Edmund.
The Australian, John Millman, can use the crowd to his advantage against Borna Coric.
David Ferrer came pretty close to winning a tournament a few days ago, is the Spaniard ready for the fire power of the fiery Russian, Andrey Rublev? The 30th seeded Rublev was also pretty close to winning a title a little over a week ago.
These are just a few of the juicy matches that day one has to offer and there are still many more exciting matches on tap for day one. Last year’s men’s finalist and number one seed, Rafael Nadal, begins his quest against Victor Estrella Burgos.
SOURCE OF IMAGE: serveandrally original
