Azarenka and Djokovic come to the Australian Open draw ceremony a slow moving boat.
After an unenviable amount of time filling (or time wasting if you wanted to be harsh), Tennis Australia finally got around to announcing the draw ceremony for the 2012 Australian Open.
Clearly at the end of the draw ceremony, the biggest winners are Novak Djokovic, since it was Roger Federer who got Andy Murray on his half of the draw, and Serena Williams, since she is Serena Williams.
Maria Sharapova was thought to be a winner of the day since Victoria Azarenka drew Serena in the semifinals, but the world #2 could easily go out to Venus Williams in the 3rd Round.
With the qualifiers still to be determined, here is the quick rundown of both the men's and women's singles draws of the 2012 Australian Open:
Women
Highlight First Rounds
Wozniacki-Lisicki and Kvitova-Schiavone are the obvious standout matches, as all four players have had an inauspicious first fortnight of the new year.
Lisicki has owned the matchup against Wozniacki in the past, and will still have the "less pressure" mantle of the two since she's returned to a life outside the Top 30/32. However, defending 4th Round points will be on the German's mind, so the tension will be on both sides as Wozniacki looks to not lose in the 1st Round of a major for the third straight time.
But there are other quality first rounders that have near 50/50 chances for both players, considering interesting dynamics in them.
Shvedova-Beck: Though people are already lining up Yaroslava Shvedova into a Wimbledon rematch meeting with Serena Williams, that surely is not a guarantee at all with her drawing rising German talent Annika Beck. An excellent match player with good movement and fine groundstrokes, Beck will certainly test the Russian-Kazakstan.
Vandeweghe-Cristea: Just for overall entertainment factor to see who will hit the most erratic, insane error, this match certainly will provide no major defensive strategy. Although Cirstea has showed that she is feeling the expectations of rising again after finishing 2012 in the Top 30, she is just a little better at patching together a few outstanding points than her massive hitting American counterpart.
Chang-Stosur: Those well-documented, annual home country woes for Down Under's #1 are prevalent again for another year. And making it worse for Stosur is the fact that she has to deal with a player who just defeated her this past fall.
Bartoli-Medina Garrigues: Though the Spaniard will start off the clear underdog in this match, Bartoli was thrashed by Klara Zakopalova in Shenzhen and won't be high on confidence.
V.Williams-Voskoboeva: Most have salivated at a potential Venus-Sharapova 3rd Round, but this is not an easy opener for Venus against a tricky talent in Voskoboeva, who can certainly handle the #3 American's pace and dish aggressive offensive play right back.
Azarenka-Niculescu: On both ranking and Niculescu's ability to give anyone a headache, this is not the greatest first round draw for the world number #1, as the Romanian just missed out on being a seed. However, Azarenka has had no problem with her future first round opponent in their four meetings, winning eight of their 9 sets, with six of those sets resulting in Niculescu winning two or less games.
Biggest Loser of the Draw:
Edina Gallovits-Hall, who has the honor of being Serena Williams' opponent in this first round.
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