It's Gonna Be Wild Y'all

by Savannah

Just in case you thought the 2011 WTA season was going to be more of the same China's Li Na
let it be known that it ain't. Li served notice - literally - to a befuddled and in the end frustrated Kim Clijsters that it was not going to be business as usual.
The match started at 3:30 in the morning Eastern United States time and I woke up at 4:30a. I almost went back to sleep thinking that Clijsters had been able to get away with her usual rapid fire pace and that the match was over. Thank goodness the tennishead in me prevailed. I logged in just in time to see Li win a first set tie break 7-3, a first set that she'd been behind in by a score of 0-5. The commentators said that Li had been down 15-30 in the sixth game when she got her act together and won the next six games. Clijsters managed to force a tiebreak but once again Li wasn't following the script.
Li refused to let Clijsters back in. She took the ball early and hit groundies this observer hadn't seen her do before. Her coach and husband made only one trip to counsel his wife that I saw. Even when Li got tight in the second set he stayed in his seat leaving her to work it out.
Meanwhile there was nothing coming from Clijsters. I've said here before that Clijsters is merely an older, more experienced version of Caroline Wozniacki. Li was having her push forehands for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When forced to play Clijsters lack of footwork and variety was exposed leaving her extremely frustrated.
In the end the only question was whether Li would suffer brain freeze and lose. She didn't. It was an extremely interesting final leading to the beginning of the Australian Open where Clijsters is seeded third. Very interesting indeed.

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Iveta Benesova (left) and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova pose with their trophies after winning the women's doubles event at Sydney.

The 2011 Australian Open WTA Draw

Caroline Wozniacki DEN (1) v Gisela Dulko ARG

Tamira Paszek AUT v Vania King USA

Lucie Hradecka CZE v Alberta Brianti ITA

Angelique Kerber GER v Dominika Cibulkova SVK (29)

Yanina Wickmayer BEL (21) v Jarmila Groth AUS

Polona Hercog SLO Anastasija Sevastova LAT

Qualifier v Laura Pous-Tio ESP

Tathiana Garbin ITA v Marion Bartoli FRA (15)

Justine Henin BEL (11) v Qualifier

Qualifier v Elena Baltacha GBR

Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA v Qualifier

Alison Riske USA v Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (23)

Tsvetana Pironkova BUL (32) v Pauline Parmentier FRA

Timea Bacsinszky SUI v Monica Niculescu ROU

Rebecca Marino CAN v Junri Namigata JPN

Arantxa Parra Santonja ESP v Francesca Schiavone ITA (6)

Venus Williams USA (4) v Sara Errani ITA

Sandra Zahlavova CZE v Renata Voracova CZE

Qualifier v Qualifier

Jill Craybas USA v Andrea Petkovic GER (30)

Kaia Kanepi EST (20) v Magdalena Rybarikova SVK

Julia Goerges GER v Edina Gallovits - Hall ROU

Elena Vesnina RUS v Virginie Razzano FRA

Tamarine Tanasugarn THA v Maria Sharapova RUS (14)

Na Li CHN (9) v Sofia Arvidsson SWE

Evgeniya Rodina RUS v Olivia Rogowska AUS

Zuzana Ondraskova CZE v Jelena Dokic AUS

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova CZE v Aravane Rezai FRA (17)

Daniela Hantuchova SVK (28) v Regina Kulikova RUS

Karolina Sprem CRO v Chanelle Scheepers RSA

Patricia Mayr-Achleitner AUT v Andrea Hlavackova CZE

Qualifier v Victoria Azarenka BLR (8)

Jelena Jankovic SRB (7) v Alla Kudryavtseva RUS

Kateryna Bondarenko UKR v Shuai Peng CHN

Caroline Garcia FRAv Varvara Lepchenko USA

Ayumi Morita JPN v Alexandra Dulgheru ROU (27)

Alisa Kleybanova RUS (24) v Qualifier

Qualifier v Simona Halep ROU

Sophie Ferguson AUS v Qualifier

Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN v Agnieszka Radwanska POL (12)

Nadia Petrova RUS (13) v Ksenia Pervak RUS

Alicia Molik AUS v Roberta Vinci ITA

Patty Schnyder SUI v Qualifier

Ekaterina Makarova RUS v Ana Ivanovic SRB (19)

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP (26) v Greta Arn HUN

Qualifier v Alize Cornet FRA

Christina McHale USA v Carla Suarez Navarro ESP

Dinara Safina RUS v Kim Clijsters BEL (3)

Samantha Stosur AUS (5) v Lauren Davis USA

Maria Elena Camerin ITA v Vera Dushevina RUS

Olga Govortsova BLR v Anna Chakvetadze RUS

Sally Peers AUS v Petra Kvitova CZE (25)

Flavia Pennetta ITA (22) v Anastasia Rodionova AUS

Lourdes Dominguez Lino ESP v Johanna Larsson SWE

Sorana Cirstea ROU v jana Lucic CRO

Mathilde Johansson FRA v Shahar Peer ISR (10)

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS (16) v Kirsten Flipkens BEL

Akgul Amanmuradova UZB v Kristina Barrois GER

Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP v Iveta Benesova CZE

Romina Oprandi ITA v Maria Kirilenko RUS (18)

Lucie Safarova CZE (31) v Shuai Zhang CHN

Klara Zakopalova CZE v Melanie Oudin USA

Bojana Jovanovski SRB v Kai-Chen Chang TPE

Sybille Bammer AUT v Vera Zvonareva RUS (2)

Serena Williams is not playing. Venus Williams, as I've said before, seems to be allergic to Melbourne. Kim Clijsters, who played a grueling semi final match against Alisa Kleybanova in Sydney, a match she won only to turn around and lose to Li Na in the final, is not a sure bet here. Does she need a non US Open win? Yes. Will she get it? Maybe. There are a lot of women who can do a lot of damage here. During the Draw Show, one of the worst television broadcasts I have ever seen in my life by the the way, Alicia Molik said people should watch out for Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Bethanie is in the final at Hobart where she will play Jarmila Groth, another woman who has seemingly discovered her game. Was Alicia delusional? I don't think so.
I don't like to do predictions but I will say upfront that top seed Caroline Wozniacki is not going to make the Final unless she's been playing possum coming into Melbourne. She was shellacked in Hong Kong by Vera Zvonareva and sent packing in the first round at Sydney by Dominika Cibulkova. Remember Wozniacki said that it's not important for her to win a Slam, something I still find ridiculous for a number one to say.
What about Justine Henin? What about Maria Sharapova? What about them? Both are said to be coming off of injuries entering Melbourne. Both have played like they're coming back from injuries. Whoever wins this thing is going to come out of the blue so to speak and no amount of cheerleading will make it any different.

The 2011 Australian Open ATP Draw

Rafael Nadal ESP (1) v Marcos Daniel BRA

Qualifier v Daniel Gimeno-Traver ESP

Bernard Tomic AUS v Jeremy Chardy FRA

Alejandro Falla COL v Feliciano Lopez ESP (31)

John Isner USA (20) v Florent Serra FRA

Radek Stepanek CZE v Qualifier

Rui Machado POR v Santiago Giraldo COL

Qualifier v Marin Cilic CRO (15)

Mikhail Youzhny RUS (10) v Marsel Ilhan TUR

Qualifier v Kevin Anderson RSA

Qualifier v Bjorn Phau GER

Juan Ignacio Chela ARG v Michael Llodra FRA (22)

David Nalbandian ARG (27) v Lleyton Hewitt AUS

Richard Berankis LTU v Marinko Matosevic AUS

Michael Russell USA v Matthew Ebden AUS

Jarkko Nieminen FIN v David Ferrer ESP (7)

Robin Soderling SWE (4) v Potito Starace ITA

Qualifier v Qualifier

Denis Istomin UZB v Qualifier

Ricardo Mello BRA v Thomaz Bellucci BRA (30)

Ernests Gulbis LAT (24) v Benjamin Becker GER

Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR v Mikhail Kukushkin KAZ

Andreas Seppi ITA v Arnaud Clement FRA

Philipp Petzschner GER v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (13)

Jurgen Melzer AUT (11) v Qualifier

Carsten Ball AUS v Pere Riba ESP

Dudi Sela ISR v Juan Martin Del Potro ARG

Qualifier v Marcos Baghdatis CYP (21)

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP (32) v Michael Berrer GER

Eduardo Schwank ARG v Leonardo Mayer ARG

Illya Marchenko UKR v Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo ESP

Karol Beck SVK v Andy Murray GBR (5)

Tomas Berdych CZE (6) v Qualifier

Philipp Kohlschreiber GER v Tobias Kamke GER

Ryan Harrison USA v Adrian Mannarino FRA

Qualifier v Richard Gasquet FRA (28)

Nikolay Davydenko RUS (23) v Florian Mayer GER

Fabio Fognini ITA v Kei Nishikori JPN

Mischa Zverev GER v Janko Tipsarevic SRB

Rainer Schuettler GER v Fernando Verdasco ESP (9)

Nicolas Almagro ESP (14) v Qualifier

Igor Andreev RUS v Filippo Volandri ITA

Qualifier v Benoit Paire FRA

Peter Luczak AUS v Ivan Ljubicic CRO (17)

Viktor Troicki SRB (29) v Dmitry Tursunov RUS

Brian Dabul ARG v Qualifier

Ivo Karlovic CRO v Ivan Dodig CRO

Marcel Granollers ESP v Novak Djokovic SRB (3)

Andy Roddick USA (8) v Jan Hajek CZE

Michal Przysiezny POL v Igor Kunitsyn RUS

Carlos Berlocq ARG v Robin Haase NED

Julien Benneteau FRA v Juan Monaco ARG (26)

Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (19) v Teymuraz Gabashvili RUS

Qualifier v Andrey Golubev KAZ

Frederico Gil POR v Pablo Cuevas URU

Thiemo de Bakker NED v Gael Monfils FRA (12)

Mardy Fish USA (16) v Victor Hanescu ROU

Tommy Robredo ESP v Somdev Devvarman IND

Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR v Daniel Brands GER

Lukasz Kubot POL v Sam Querrey USA (18)

Albert Montanes ESP (25) v Dustin Brown GER

Pablo Andujar ESP v Xavier Malisse BEL

Yen-Hsun Lu TPE v Gilles Simon FRA

Lukas Lacko SVK v Roger Federer SUI (2)

What is there to say? The American men, Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey are joined by Novak Djokovic, Stanislas Wawrinka, Gael Monfils and Tomas Berdych in the bottom half of the draw. Will Gael Monfils be able to hold it together? Will Berdych show his Wimbledon run wasn't a fluke? What about Djokovic? Nikolay Davydenko is also in the bottom half of the draw.

As for the top half of the draw Andy Murray and Robin Soderling are there along with Juan Martin del Potro and David Nalbandian.

I have no problems with how either draw is set up. Have some been kissed by the Gods of the Draw? Yes, but there are nice little traps set for everyone and that is how a draw should be.

End Note

The WTA Final at Hobart and the ATP Final at Auckland will be played later today. I don't usually split showing the winners but I've made an exception due to the surprise win of Li Na, something deserving it's own focus, and the release of the Australian Open Singles draws yesterday. I'll feature the winners of those events as usual.