Serena Williams is seen here at her book signing at Harrods department store in London, on November 2, 2009. Now it’s time to put the books away and focus on tennis. Williams, who is currently ranked No. 1 on the WTA Tour is seeded No. 1 for the 2010 Australian Open set to begin Jan. 18 in Melbourne. Yes, Grand Slam tennis is about to get under way.
Tournament officials could have used a discretionary seeding to place Justine Henin in the draw, but they chose not to. So the Belgian former champion playing in her first Grand Slam tournament since announcing her return from retirement will be a dangerous threat, possibly meeting some of the top seeds in the opening rounds.
Rounding out the top ten seeds are:
- Serena Williams of the United States of America
- Dinara Safina of Russia
- Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia
- Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark
- Elena Dementieva of Russia
- Venus Williams of the United States of America
- Victoria Azarenka of Belarus
- Jelena Jankovic of Serbia
- Vera Zvonareva of Russia
- Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland
The Russians look tough again this year, with four seeds in the top ten, plus Maria Sharapova at No. 14, Nadia Petrova at No. 19, Alisa Kleybanova at No. 27, and Elena Vesnina at No. 28. That’s eight ranked in the top 30. Watch out, the Russians are coming!
The seeding committee seems afraid to add a little excitement by mixing up the seedings compared to current rankings, as the players were all seeded by ranking with the exception of world No. 16 Yanina Wickmayer, who is playing the qualifying tournament because the entry deadline passed before she was reinstated by the International Tennis Federation. Wickmayer was given a one-year suspension from competition in November, 2009, for failing on three occasions to report her whereabouts in line with the World Anti-Doping Agency policies, even though she never missed a doping test and never failed one. Wickmayer later won an appeal and the ban was lifted. However, she must play the qualifying tournament to get into the Australian Open.
Fasten your seat belts, folks. Here we go. Who know what major upsets will happen, who will miss half the season due to injuries, who will throw temper tantrums causing the loss of the match, who will be suspended for violation of some obscure rule that most players don’t even know about. Yes, it should be an exciting season!
