Top half of Australian Open women’s draw wide open, but “every match is going to be a battle”

We are only in the fourth round, but not a single top-10 seed remains on the women’s side in the top half of the draw. Opportunities about for everyone left.

Victoria Azarenka Australian Open 2023 (AI _ Reuters _ Panoramic)

Ricky Dimon

January 21, 2024

It has been absolute carnage in the top half of the women’s singles draw at the Australian Open.

Through three rounds, 12 of the 16 seeds have lost. That includes No 1 Iga Swiatek, who was stunned by 19-year-old Czech Linda Noskova on Saturday night. Not a single top-10 seed remains. That means the highest-ranked potential finalist a week from now is No 12 Qinwen Zheng, who just barely got past fellow Chinese woman Yafan Wang in a third-set tiebreaker during third-round action.

The only Grand Slam champion left among the 16 is Victoria Azarenka, who has won the Australian Open twice.

every match is going to be a battle. there are no bad players in the fourth round of a grand slam.
Victoria Azarenka

Needless to say, a massive opportunity awaits every player still alive on that side of the bracket. Azarenka was asked about the situation following her third-round victory over Jelena Ostapenko, specifically if her hopes and mentality change for the remainder of the tournament now that she is among the favorites to at least reach the final.

“Hopes, no; mentality, not really,” Azarenka explained. “Every match is going to be a battle. There are no bad players in the fourth round of a Grand Slam. If they are here, that means they worked their butts off and they played well and they deserve to be here.

“I think right now the level of tennis is very, very competitive, and we have like a deep pool of players who can beat anybody on the given day. I think that’s what makes them more dangerous. The consistency sometimes can be on and off. You don’t know which player you’re going to get on which day.

“I think that they fully deserve to be where they are. There are no easy matches in the Grand Slam. So you have to start the tournaments right away from the first round. The evidence of seeded players kind of being out early is that the quality and the level of other players is really high.”

Azarenka will face qualifier Dayana Yastremska for a spot in the quarter-finals. The other fourth-round matchups — all of which are obviously unexpected — in the top half draw are Zheng vs. Oceane Dodin, Noskova vs Elina Svitolina and Jasmine Paolini vs Anna Kalinskaya.

If anyone other than Azarenka advances to the championship match, they will be a first-time major finalist.