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australian open previews the wta a different place every week what it sets up for these two weeks is an undeclared battle between old guard and new alongside caroline wozniacki petra kvitova and vika azarebka we have the return of 28-year-old four-time slam champ and defending aussie winner kim clijsters as well as the return of 30-year-old serena williams to a tournament she has won five times how will the top three kids who have a total of one major between them measure up the draw is as wide open as it s ever been and everyone has a chance to climb to the top first quarter wozniacki is as famous for her major-tournament bummers as she is for any of her victories but she did come close in oz last year she held match point against li na in the semifinals before ultimately losing now she might have to see li on the other side of the net again they re scheduled to meet in the quarterfinals wozniacki was slowed by wrist inflammation last week but appears ready for melbourne she ll go against the city s own 107th-ranked anastasia rodionova in the first round jelena jankovic is the highest seed in her side of this section but two other players stand out as possible earlier threats christina mchale who beat wozniacki in cincinnati last year and lucie safarova a hard hitter who is good for an upset did i just say that li and wozniacki were scheduled to meet in the quarters that can only be on paper because the 11th seed has also been placed in this quarter and she happens to be kim clijsters the belgian like much of the tour so far this year has been injured but her withdrawal from brisbane was precautionary she hasn t played a slam since may but long periods of dormancy haven t hurt her in the past 2009 anyone clijsters brackets include arantxa rus who beat her in paris last year and daniela hantuchova who has played some good tennis so far this season first-round match to watch mchale vs safarova semifinalist clijsters second quarter azarenka leads off this section and with her win in sydney she now takes over as the younger gun to bet on this is usually a good time of year for her twice she has had serena williams on the ropes before losing on these courts and more important she s in a better place mentally than she used to be on court she opens in melbourne with britain s heather watson and might get the sometime-prospect bojana jovanovski in the second round after that the top two seeds in azarenka s section are flavia pennetta and shaui peng pennetta reached the auckland final but had to retire with an injury the no 8 seed radwanska is at the bottom of this quarter with her crafty scrappy style could cause some trouble for azarenka in the quarterfinals their last 5 matches have all gone the distance semifinalist azarenka third quarter

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shaky territory at the top we have precariously vera zvonareva the seventh seed who lost her opening match of 2012 at the bottom we have maria sharapova the fourth seed who has been nursing a bad ankle for months and hasn t played a match in 2012 in between we have serena williams also coming off an ankle injury and a long period on the sidelines what about serena we know from the now-famous six-pack practice photo that she s fit even if serena claims she got that way not by exercising but by laughing a lot and we know she s made a career of coming to oz with little match play and winning anyway as always in these situations though she s unpredictable those titles never come without a miracle escape along the way one player in her section other than zvonareva who seems capable of hanging with her right now is brisbane champ kaia kanepi also here with a shot svetlana kuznetsova and sabine lisicki semifinalist williams fourth quarter petra kvitova has been the bookie s favourite to win coming off her year end championship victory and fed cup title now after some sketchy play in sydney there s been second thoughts as i said every week gives us a new wta it seems that kvitova is still and may forever be prone to wide swings in consistency she could win this whole thing easily or go out in a blaze of unforced errors in the first round still kvitova is the player to beat in a pretty interesting section she opens with dushevina and has kirilenko as her closest seed ana ivanovic and anastasia pavluchenkova are also in the vicinity though neither is setting the world on fire in 2012 bartoli and jie zheng are on the other side along with sixth seed and home-court head case sam stosur if stosur can somehow manage to calm her nerves she has the best shot of unseating kvitova and possibly winning the tournament if not look for jie zheng winner in auckland and former semifinalist here to do damage she opens with an intriguing match-up against american teenager madison keys semifinalist kvitova semifinals azarenka d clijsters williams d kvitova final williams d azarenka if she s truly healthy there s no one in the world who can beat serena look for the 5 time champ to add a sixth australian open trophy to her resume.

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the atp what s at stake in this year s australian open men s tournament what does it mean for the bigger picture and the longer term last year we debated whether novak djokovic s wins over roger federer and rafael nadal were a temporary upsurge by a talented but volatile player or the beginning of a new era dominated by a new champion who was in a class of his own during the season i came down on the side of the former it was hard to imagine the rise of another federer so soon after federer himself this will be djokovic s first chance to prove the long-view doubters wrong and to begin to answer the question of whether his own reign has begun first quarter any discerning tennis fan wanted to know one thing about this draw right away who fell into whom s half in other words would we get another djokovic vs federer and nadal vs murray semifinal lineup they were drawn that way all four grand slams last year or would it finally flip it flipped djokovic if form holds is set to play murray while we could see our first federer-nadal slam semi since the 2005 french open for now djokovic should have a chance to work his way into this tournament he starts with aging italian paolo lorenzi and the bestknown name he would face in his first three rounds is the also-aging radek stepanek more interesting is who djokovic could get in the fourth round there s 15th-seed andy roddick who hasn t played lately perhaps more menacing is the presence of 23rd-seed milos raonic who has already won a tournament this year in chennai and who made his breakthrough in melbourne a year ago on the other side of this quarter are two more potentially compelling storylines david ferrer s and janko tipsarevic s each of these modest-sized late-bloomers had a career season in 2011 and each finished in the top 10 but does either of them have the weapons or the self-confidence for more also in this quarter lleyton hewitt actually wouldn t mind seeing him lose because he s a good commentator and richard gasquet semifinalist djokovic second quarter andy murray won t be able to ease his way into this one he starts with the raw athletic unpredictable ryan harrison the young american can throw in his clunker matches but he s also a big-stage kind of kid still i like the steadier murray in this one he shouldn t have to leave his comfort zone to have success there s no one in this quarter who leaps out as a threat as with djokovic s draw murray s gets more interesting in the fourth round that s where he might find gael monfils or victor troicki monfils beat murray the last time they played in 2010 and troicki nearly beat him at roland garros last year but the biggest threat to murray reaching his fifth straight slam semi should come from the player at the bottom of this quarter jowilfried tsonga the frenchman has built on a rare long stretch of good health with a win in doha and runners-up finishes in london and paris late last season he s currently playing the best tennis of his career tsonga beat murray in the first round here in 2008 when he reached the final he has time to line up his big swings and get in behind them for touch volleys call it one more men s storyline can jo the performer become jo the winner semifinalist tsonga third quarter this isn t the toughest section but from a game-style perspective it s the most intriguing bernard tomic alexandr dolgopolov and juan

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martin del potro add some big and idiosyncratic talent in the middle brackets to supplement the marquee name at the bottom roger federer where is federer game-wise at the moment a bad back forced him out of doha and slowed the roll he had begun at the end of october his early rounds in oz should allow him to regain some momentum the second-highest seed in this quarter is mardy fish next is del potro next is dolgopolov of those three only del potro looks like a possible serious threat to federer it wouldn t be wise to count out local hero tomic either his game is peaking and has been known to give the top players some trouble semifinalist federer fourth quarter four of nadal s potential oppenents in the first three rounds are going to be qualifiers two are crusty veterans,tommy haas and ivan ljubicic one is donald young nadal like his fellow top seeds should be able to find his range early there s potential thunder in the distance though nadal could get john isner david nalbandian or nikolay davydenko in the fourth round of these three isner would pose the biggest threat i had thought coming into the season that isner might be moving up and pounding his way to a slam semi soon but it hasn t started out that way he lost to bobby reynolds early in sydney still rafa who nearly went out to isner at the french open last year will probably be rooting for someone else to get to the fourth round tomas berdych leads the other half of this section the czech boosted by a zealous and unexpected local following was hot in oz last season until he ran into an even hotter djokovic we ll see if berdych s chanting fans return nicolas almagro is also here what s notable about that the spaniard is the 10th seed in the entire tournament that might be this event s most mysterious story of all semifinalist nadal semifinals djokovic d tsonga nadal d federer final nadal d djokovic nadal should end his six match losing streak to djokovic and add a second australian open title to his name.

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who will be number 1 all signs point to current number 2 six players are vying to end the tournament with the no 1 ranking with kvitova in pole position unlike most players though it was never a childhood dream actually when i started to play tennis i didn t think i would be a professional tennis player the 21-year-old czech said sunday so for me to win wimbledon the year-end championships fed cup it wasn t my dream but it s very nice if i maybe can be no 1 it will be very nice too of course caroline wozniacki currently holds the top spot despite never winning a grand slam title she must at least reach the fourth round at the australian open to have a chance of staying there victoria azarenka maria sharapova sam stosur and agnieszka radwanska could also take the top ranking but the no 2-ranked kvitova is the favorite kvitova is still getting used to being one of the stars of the women s game in her first grand slam afterwimbledon she lost in the first round of the u.s open but she recovered her form at the end of the year to win the season-ending tournament and help the czech republic win the fed cup it s really strange for me kvitova said of dealing with the fame i m already get used to it i mean it s the part of our life we have to live with this

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can a newly trim serena williams battle her way to victory at the australian open when all the press is talking about a body part in the lead up to a grand slam tournament it usually means one of the key players isfailing to pass a fitness test but in the case of this year s australian open it is not serena williams dicky ankle that has grabbed the tennis world s attention but her finely honed six-pack which was caught on camera when she went out to practice on rod laver arena in a crop top it was a revealing moment in every sense and you had to wonder whether williams was sending a signal to her rivals could those sharpedged abdominal s mean that she is readying herself for a shot at the big prizes in 2012 williams likes to act the part of the couch potato two weeks ago she told reporters in brisbane that i ve actually never liked sports and i never understood how i became an athlete i don t like working out i don t like anything that has to do with working physically but the physical evidence tells a different story there can be little doubt that williams who has declined to appear in any tournaments since the us open last september has been putting in the hours over the off-season if she can improve her speed around the court then williams still has a strong enough game to destroy any of her younger challengers she delivers the most venomous serve in the history of the women s game and has a killer instinct that terrifies her rivals with the possible exception of fellow veteran kim clijsters

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when she made her comeback to the tour in the summer of 2011 williams had spent a year out of the game and undergone several bouts of surgery not just for her wounded foot but for a life-threatening blood clot as well it was hardly surprising that she was a little slow to the ball yet even then despite being short of her ideal fitness levels she was good enough to reach the final of the us open where it took a career-best performance from australia s sam stosur to stop her this time around with a little more focus and determination williams should find herself in a prime position to roll through the tournament a nice draw would help her case and allow her to play her way into the tournament and peak for the later rounds the australian open is a tournament serena has dominated the past decade and victories in the hot aussie sun shouldn t be ending anytime soon.

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