The world is still waiting for Serena Williams to nab her first Grand Slam title since last year. Will she finally able to end the drought? Or will another contender end up as the last woman standing in the tournament? Read on for a preview of the 2018 US Open women’s singles below.
She has yet to win a singles title this year, but who cares? Williams remains a destructive force on the tennis court, who should only continue to get her prowess back the further she moves away from a recent childbirth. Williams looked poised to win her first Grand Slam since the Australian Open last year, when she dazzled at the Wimbledon last month before falling prey to Angelique Kerber in the finals. Williams has been shaky of late, though, as she lost to Johanna Konta in an embarrassing fashion in the first round of the Silicon Valley Classic before getting sent home in the second round of the Western & Southern Open by Petra Kvitova.
Ranked fourth in the world, Kerber has been playing in arguably the best year of her career. The 30-year-old German had a semifinals finish at the Australian Open, a quarterfinals appearance at the French Open, then won the whole thing at Wimbledon. Based on that trend alone, Kerber is bound to have a solid showing at the US Open, a projection that gets reinforced by the fact that Kerber has been a force on the hard court with a 21-6 record on matches played on such surface so far this year. And by the way, she also bagged the title at the US Open in 2016, defeating Karolína Plíšková in the finals.
Konta crashed and burned in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters this month, which does not bode her well for the US Open. Having said that, she’s done more winning than losing on hard courts this year, as she’s 12-10 in matches on the surface in 2018. At the Rogers Cup (hard court), she defeated Jelena Ostapenko and Victoria Azarenka before falling to Elina Svitolina in the third round. Prior to that, Konta blasted Serena Williams in the first round of the Silicon Valley Classic with a shocking 6-1, 6-0 win over the legend.As for her track record at the US Open, she made it to the round of 16 there in back-to-back years in 2015 and 2016 before a disappointing first-round exit in 2017. She can be unpredictable, but the upside is still there.
The pocket-sized Barty made quite a run earlier this month at Rogers Cup in Montreal, as he stitched together four straight victories to reach the semifinals. Unfortunately for Barty, she was not able to solve top-seed Simona Halep, who eliminated the Australian after two sets. Nevertheless, it’s a solid performance on a hard court for Barty which also served as a preparation for the US Open. Last year, Barty made it as far as the round of 32 at the US Open.
There’s a reason why Vondrousova is given such long odds: she hasn’t proven much in the big stage so far in her young career. Only 19, Vondrousova hasn’t gone past the second round of any Grand Slam events. This year, the Czech got booted out of the Australian Open in the round of 64 then was sent crashing out of the French Open and Wimbledon right in the very first round. She is 6-7 in hard court matches this year.
Writer’s Prediction
Serena Williams is back in form and takes the 2018 US Open.
