The 2021 women\u2019s Australian Open is the first major tournament of the year, but it is the third major tournament played since the coronavirus pandemic arrived. The U.S. Open was the first major tournament played in a pandemic, and it occurred at its normal spot on the calendar. Roland Garros occurred in early October, several months removed from its normal late-May, early-June period. Wimbledon was canceled in 2020, and it hopes to be back in 2021. On February 8, though, the Australian Open is scheduled to begin. This will represent a three-week delay of the tournament, which normally starts in mid-January and runs through the end of the month. This year\u2019s tournament will end on Sunday, Feb. 21. Let\u2019s look at three women\u2019s players who can reasonably be viewed as elite contenders for the championship in Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though she didn\u2019t compete in either the U.S. or French Opens last year after the pandemic hit, Barty \u2013 Australia\u2019s own \u2013 is still the No. 1 player in the world. She and many other tennis players have had a lot of time to rest, train, and reconsider her tactics for the women\u2019s tour. Barty\u2019s use of an offensive slice makes her unique in women\u2019s tennis, and with so many players playing conventional styles, Barty\u2019s change of pace and unorthodox approach could be a difference-maker for her in Melbourne. Barty made the semifinals of this tournament a year ago, so it\u2019s not much of a stretch at all to think she can take the final few steps and lift the trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naomi Osaka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman who won the 2020 U.S. Open championship is the best women\u2019s hardcourt player in the world. Osaka has won two of the last three U.S. Opens and won the 2019 Australian Open title. Osaka struggles on clay and grass, but her hardcourt credentials are hard to top among any non-Serena Williams player in the field. With three hardcourt major titles to her credit, it\u2019s very hard to bet against her in Australia. Osaka, in the prime of fitness and health, has great court coverage and is able to get to shots with her long reach. She has a clutch serve combined with terrific defensive instincts and a ruthless power baseline game in neutral rallies which can give her added leverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sofia Kenin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it a reach to pick Sofia Kenin to defend her 2020 Australian Open title one year later? Not at all. Kenin reached the final of the French Open last October before losing to Iga Swiatek. Kenin has quickly carved out a reputation as a player who will play steady and persistent tennis. She isn\u2019t flashy, but she stays in matches. She is one of the best scoreboard players out there, meaning that if she is down a set or down a break or down love-30 in a game, she doesn\u2019t get rattled. She keeps her head down and plays the next point with a clear and focused mind. You can\u2019t tell if she is winning or losing a match by looking at her body language. She has a form of intensity which slowly burns and isn\u2019t volatile. Several players are more talented than Kenin, but few are more disciplined. If she plays a lower-ranked player due to an upset in her section of the draw, she has been very good at taking care of business and not getting complacent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 2021 women\u2019s Australian Open is the first major tournament of the year, but it is the third major tournament…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15436,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15425\/revisions\/15436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Ashleigh Barty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n