US Open 2015: Round of 16 Day 1 preview - Will Williams, Djokovic and Fognini fire?

Women’s Draw

The top half of the women’s draw is definitely Serena Williams’. Will anybody be able to stop her juggernaut? Here are the quarterfinal contenders.

Serena Williams (1) vs. Madison Keys (19)

Williams with Madison Keys at their Australian Open meeting earlier this year

Head to Head : 1-0

Chasing a historic calendar year grand slam, Serena Williams continued the trend of playing three set matches in the early rounds at majors this year. With the three set win against Bethanie Mattek-Sands, she is now four wins away from a second calendar year grand slam. She faces another American, Madison Keys, in the fourth round. Nineteen year old Keys has had a good year at the majors with a quarterfinal finish at the Wimbledon and a semifinal loss to Serena at Melbourne, in their only meeting so far. It looks quite difficult to unseat Serena at this moment and it remains highly doubtful if anyone can even deter her from progressing further this US Open.

Prediction : Serena Williams to win in straight sets

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Venus Williams (23) vs.Anett Kontaveit (Q)

Head to Head : First meeting

For the first time since her 2010 last four finish, the elder Williams has progressed to the fourth round. With a convincing win over Belinda Bencic in the third round, she now faces Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit. The Estonian is the lowest ranked player in the top half. On her way to the last 16, she defeated Casey Dellacqua, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Madison Brengle. Needless to say, she would pose a tough challenge to Venus, but a Serena-Venus quarterfinal clash looks to be a likely matchup come Tuesday.

Prediction : Venus Williams to win in straight sets

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Kristina Mladenovic vs. Ekaterina Makarova (13)

Head to Head : 0-2

With both Mladenovic and Makarova apparently cutting down on doubles participation to focus on singles, the results have been good. Mladenovic took down former Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round. In the matches that followed the upset, she was handed winnable matches and made use of them to reach the round of 16 for the first time in her career. Ekaterina Makarova had to leave some matches incomplete during the earlier tournaments due to a niggling injury. As a result, she decided to skip the doubles event, where she is the defending champion along with Elena Vesnina. Though the injury seems to not have disappeared, she managed some convincing wins in the first three rounds, including the last one against in-form Elina Svitolina. The defending semifinalist looks to better her chances this year as she will not face a higher ranked player till the semifinals.

With the French Woman looking to reach her maiden quarterfinals and the Russian southpaw intent on defending her points, it could be a close one, if the latter’s injury does not spoil proceedings.

Prediction : Ekaterina Makarova to win

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Roberta Vinci vs. Eugenie Bouchard (25)

Head to Head : 1-0

While the Italian veteran has reached the quarterfinals at the US Open twice before, for the young Canadian, this is the only major where she has not reached the semifinals or better. Even before she could do that, the momentum that helped her reach the last stages of the majors waxed. After a troublesome year where she had won just nine of the twentysix matches that she played, she has regained some of her lost form, as evidenced from the battle against Dominika Cibulkova in the previous match.

Roberta Vinci did not make the headlines for long after the split with Errani. Now she faces another opportunity to reach the quarterfinals at the age of 32. Her matches have been relatively easier.She had recently defeated the Canadian at the New Haven tournament. It remains to be seen whether she can raise her level to quell Bouchard’s challenge for the second time.

Prediction : Eugenie Bouchard to win

DISCLAIMER: Following Bouchard’s injury in the locker rooms yesterday she has withdrawn from the mixed and women’s doubles events at the tournament. No word yet on her singles participation.