Serena Williams, Sharapova in same quarter at Aussie Open

While world No. 1 Serena Williams continues to chase the title of being women’s tennis’ most successful player ever, the luck of the draw was noticeably not on her side on Friday, when Australian Open organizers handed her one of the most disappointing outlooks for a No. 1 seed the tournament has ever seen.

Sharapova has been plagued by injury since July, after she lost in the Wimbledon semifinals to Serena Williams, but insisted she has shrugged off any lingering effects. “There’s so many matches in the first set she played like listless tennis, lethargic, like she was going through the motions with no energy”, Evert, who will be commentating for U.S. broadcaster ESPN at the Australian Open, said in a conference call. The Belarus player, twice an Australian Open champion, breezed to the Brisbane title last week without losing a set and appears to be benefitting from some time off towards the end of past year when she worked on her movement.

The world number one has barely played since the US Open in September, when Roberta Vinci shattered her dream of a calendar-year Grand Slam in a heart-breaking semi-final defeat. Then [she and Mouratoglou] talked about her having elbow pain most of late spring and summer, and when you look at what happened to her serve in crucial, pressure-packed moments sometimes – even when she won in Cincinnati – it was so un-Serena-like. His best result at the Australian Open is the third round in 2014 and 2015.

“Everything is really well and I am feeling really good”, Williams said at the draw announcement at Melbourne Park. “I actually wanted to have an easy day today but in my mind “easy” is just two hours of really intense working out”.

It was the resurgent Belarusian’s first piece of WTA silverware in two-and-a-half years and sent her soaring up the world rankings to 16, a timely confidence boost.

Sharapova, the 2008 champion, said her restricted preparation was purely precautionary.

The floater in that quarter of the draw is No. 13 Milos Raonic, who plays Lucas Pouille of France in the first round. “She’d get it when she got mad in the second set. I just felt like previous year, she showed signs of not being motivated”.

Djokovic defeated Andy Murray in four sets to claim last year’s men’s singles title, while Williams beat Maria Sharapova in straight sets to win the women’s draw.

“Yes, I might be rusty, make a few more unforced errors than I would like, but I’m ready to go”. But, yeah, I’m totally – I don’t think I would need surgery at all.

“Like I said, I’ve been doing a lot of training leading up to this”.

“You can’t replicate what you do out on the court when you’re playing a match in front of thousands of people, there’s nothing like it, you can never compare it”, she said. The American can, however brag about a number of impressive records that she holds, for example, the most of Grand Slam wins on hard court – something that will play in her favor in Melbourne. “And I really don’t think she can do the same next year”.