By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday January 11, 2023
Iga Swiatek is in a stacked half of the draw at the 2023 Australian Open.
Photo Source: AP
World No.1 Iga Swiatek faces a perilous path to glory at the 2023 Australian Open. The top seed has been drawn to face Jule Niemeier, the World No.68 who reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the round of 16 at the US Open last season, in her first match.
Swiatek defeated Niemeier in three sets at the US Open last year.
Swiatek has her opponent in last year’s semifinal, American Danielle Collins, as a potential round of 16 opponent, and also has Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in her section.
Here is Swiatek’s path to the title, if the seeds hold:
R1 v Niemeier
R2 v Camila Osorio or Panna Udvardy
R3 v Bianca Andreescu or Marie Bouzkova
R16 v [13] Danielle Collins or [22] Elena Rybakina
QF v [7] Coco Gauff or [11] Paula Badosa
SF v [3] Jessica Pegula or [6] Maria Sakkari
F v [2] Ons Jabeur
The Australian Open begins on Monday with qualifiers and lucky losers being place in the draw on Friday.
First-round matchups
There are some exciting first-round matchups on the women’s side in Melbourne, including a matchup of the only two former women’s singles champions in the draw, Sofia Kenin and Victoria Azarenka.
Victoria Azarenk v Sofia Kenin
Jelena Ostapenko v Dayana Yastremska
Maria Bouzkova v Bianca Andreescu
Marta Kostyuk v Amanda Anisimova
Leylahd Fernandez v Alize Cornet
Paula Badosa v Caty McNally
Here are the projected round of 16 matchups if the seeds hold:
And here are the full draws: