Tennis World would like to recall the history of the Australian Open, proposing to you the most successful women’s singles players of all time in the first Slam of the season.
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Williams is not the only player struggling ahead of the opening Grand Slam of the season, with injuries taking their toll on numerous leading names.
Williams, who is chasing her seventh Australian crown and 22nd Grand Slam title after beating Sharapova in last year’s final, will have a testing start against Italian Camila Giorgi, the highest ranked non-seeded player in the women’s draw. She claimed her first Australian Open title way back in 2003, beating elder sister Venus in the final, and reached her sixth past year when she toppled arch-rival Maria Sharapova.
And the deeper she gets in the tournament the more risky she gets – the World No. 1 has never lost a semifinal or final at the Happy Slam, going 6-0 in both those rounds in her illustrious career.
She used the opportunity to move to her preparations to Melbourne earlier than planned and said on Wednesday she’d spent plenty of time on the Open courts. “Obviously I had a hiccup but right now it is doing much better”.
“I know what I need to do on and off the court to win big tournaments”, she added to the newspaper late Monday.
At the time of her retirement in Perth, Williams said: “I just have some inflammation that’s been going away very slowly”.
Sharapova starts her campaign against Japan’s Nao Hibino, while world number two Simona Halep, who appears to have shaken off an Achilles problem, will play a qualifier.
The Extreme Heat Policy at the Australian Open hit the headlines in 2014 when many players complained about being forced to play in searing temperatures.
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“She can’t have another year like she had last year”. I beat her once in my life, in Singapore, and I have great memories from that match. She narrowly escaped so many matches, down a set, down a set and a break.
