Swiatek Favored to Win Australian Open for First Time
American Coco Gauff Among Australian Open Women's Singles Contenders
Former Grand Slam Champions Osaka and Kerber Are Back
Even without seven-time Australian Open women’s singles champion Serena Williams, the 2024 field is loaded with former champions who could pose a threat to Aryna Sabalenka’s bid to become the first back-to-back women’s singles champion in Melbourne since Victoria Azarenka in 2012 and 2013.
The WTA saw four different Grand Slam women’s singles champions in 2023 so that is just one of the reason why the Australian Open draw could be rather wide open.
Elena Rybakina just cruised to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Sabalenka in Brisbane while World No. 1 Iga Swiatek had an impressive run of matches at the United Cup for runner-up Poland.
Swiatek and Sabalenka are well ahead of the field in the most recent WTA rankings with Rybakina, Coco Gauff, and Jessica Pegula rounding out the top five.
Karolina Muchova, the 2023 French Open finalist, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and American Lauren Davis are among the players who have withdrawn from the tournament.
For the sixth time in the last seven years, there were four different Grand Slam women’s singles champions in 2023.
The lone exception came in 2022 when Swiatek won both the French Open and US Open titles. It is a far cry from 2006-2016 when a player won multiple Grand Slams in the same year eight times.
Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open and lost in the US Open final, was the only player to reach two Grand Slam women’s singles finals in 2023.
Swiatek won at the French Open, and Marketa Vondrousova was the surprise winner at Wimbledon with Coco Gauff delighting the home fans with her run to the US Open title.
Swiatek is the front-runner with +230 odds of winning the Australian Open.
When looking at the Australian Open schedule, the qualifying draw is currently underway. The main draw will start on Jan. 14.
Is Swiatek Ready to Break Through Down Under?
Swiatek is the favorite to win in Melbourne even though she has had some mixed results at the Australian Open. That is something to consider when it comes to betting on tennis.
Swiatek did advance to the 2022 semifinals in Melbourne. However, she fell in the second round in her Australian Open women’s singles debut in 2019 and was eliminated in the fourth round in 2020, 2021, and 2023.
Swiatek was rolling right along as she lost just 15 games in six sets in her first three matches before being knocked out of the tournament by Rybakina 6-4, 6-4.
At the United Cup, she posted wins over Beatriz Haddad Maia, Sara Sorribes Tormo, Qinwen Zheng, Caroline Garcia, and Angelique Kerber while dropping just one set.
A Look At Other Top Contenders
Defending champion Sabalenka might be a little undervalued at +450 in the Australian Open women’s singles outrights.
Sabalenka hadn’t advanced past the fourth round in her first six appearances at the Australian Open.
Sabalenka topped Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Australian Open women’s singles final.
Rybakina had no issues with Sabalenka in the Brisbane International singles final with a dominant 6-0, 6-3 win. She is now at +550 in the odds of winning the Australian Open.
Ons Jabeur has reached three of the last six Grand Slam women’s singles finals and she is currently at +1600 in Australian Open outrights.
It seems like a matter of when and not if 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva makes a deep run at a Grand Slam. Even though she has yet to make it to the second week in a Grand Slam, she is at +2000 in the Australian Open odds.
The Return of Some Big Hitters
Caroline Wozniacki, the 2018 Australian Open champion, returned to the WTA tour late last year.
More recently, Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber returned to the WTA tour. Like Wozniacki, they stepped away due to the birth of a child.
It could make for a rather interesting draw with some former top-ranked players as possible floaters in the draw.
Osaka won one Grand Slam singles title in four consecutive years (2018 US Open, 2019 Australian Open 2020 US Open, and 2021 Australian Open).
Kerber captured the Australian Open and US Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2018.
Osaka, who is priced +1400 in the Australian Open outrights, returned at the Brisbane Invitational with a straight-set win over Tamara Korpatsch before losing to No. 16 seed Karolina Pliskova.
Kerber played for the victorious German squad at the United Cup.
She extended France’s Caroline Garcia to three sets in her second singles match at the United Cup. In the semifinals, she defeated Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović in a third-set tiebreaker.
A Look At the U.S. Hopes
An American player has reached two of the last three Australian Open finals with Jennifer Brady losing to Osaka in 2021 and Danielle Collins falling to Ash Barty in 2022.
Jessica Pegula was the only American to reach the 2023 Australian Open women’s singles quarterfinals. Her title hopes ended with a loss to Victoria Azarenka.
Gauff has the best odds (+800) among the U.S. players followed by Pegula (+1600) and Collins (+5000).
Gauff posted five wins over top-10 players as she won the US Open, reached the semifinals at the China Open, and got to the semifinals in the WTA Finals as well.
Gauff just won the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand as she dropped just one set in her five matches.
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