The Australian Open 2024 women’s singles draw has been revealed at Melbourne Park, and the tournament begins with a bang.
MORE: AO2024 women's singles draw
From Iga Swiatek’s loaded section, to Elena Rybakina’s first-round blockbuster, to a series of exciting match-ups featuring comeback queens, we uncover the key takeaways from Thursday’s draw ceremony.
1. A stunning segment
Murmurs erupted in the main press conference room when the first four slots of the draw were filled on screen.
1. Iga Swiatek [1]
2. Sofia Kenin
3. Danielle Collins
4. Angelique Kerber
A quartet featuring three major champions – two of them AO winners – and a major finalist? Talk about the 2024 tournament hitting the ground running.
It’s a rough draw for AO 2020 champion Kenin, who over the last three years in first-round matches here has drawn Madison Keys, Victoria Azarenka and now Swiatek, the rampaging world No.1 on a 16-match winning streak.
The winner of that clash – a rematch of the 2020 Roland-Garros final, which Swiatek won for her first Grand Slam title – will face the winner of Kerber-Collins.
That match is a repeat of their AO 2019 fourth-round clash, which Collins won with a sublime performance before going on to reach her first major semifinal.
Of the four, Swiatek seems the most likely to progress given her form, confidence and credentials, but she confronts quality opposition right from the word go.
2. Tough start for comeback queens
Kerber’s first-round assignment against AO 2022 finalist Collins is a tough reintroduction to Grand Slam play; she will contest just her second event in 18 months after becoming a mother to daughter Liana in February.
But it’s also a tough test for Collins, who will face a three-time Grand Slam champion – the first of those titles coming at AO 2016.
The same could be said for 16th seed Caroline Garcia, who has drawn four-time major winner Naomi Osaka as her first-round opponent.
Osaka, like Kerber, will be playing just the second event of her comeback after becoming a mother; she welcomed daughter Shai into the world six months ago.
Caroline Wozniacki, now a mother of two, returned to tennis during last year’s North American hard-court swing, but didn’t play between then and her appearance in Auckland last week.
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The AO 2018 champion has drawn Magda Linette, last year’s semifinalist and this year’s 20th seed.
Amanda Anisimova, another player returning from a hiatus – although not for motherhood – plays No.13 seed Liudmila Samsonova.
3. More draw highlights
These blockbusters were not the only ones thrown up at Thursday’s draw ceremony.
No.3 seed Elena Rybakina, AO 2023 finalist and last week’s Brisbane champ, drew former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova, who ended Osaka’s Brisbane comeback in the second round.
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"You look at that and you go, wow, that's something that you wouldn't expect this early," said draw host Todd Woodbridge.
Co-host Casey Dellacqua added: "Two massive servers, so that's going to be a great first round. That's a mouth-watering one.”
Another first-rounder to watch is two-time AO champion Victoria Azarenka against big-hitting giant killer Camila Giorgi.
Looking ahead to projected match-ups, many will have spied the potential third-round meeting between young guns Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernandez, both notable for their US Open exploits.
No.5 seed Jessica Pegula could meet Chinese rising star Zheng Qinwen in the fourth round, while we could see the seventh instalment of the Aryna Sabalenka-Ons Jabeur rivalry in the quarterfinals.
The second and sixth seed respectively, Sabalenka and Jabeur last met at a Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2023 – a memorable quarterfinal that Jabeur won in three sets.
4. Smoother path for defending champion
Until that potential meeting with Jabeur, Sabalenka will perhaps breathe a sigh of relief as she commences her title defence.
While her rivals deal with dangerous unseeded foes, Sabalenka opens against a qualifier, and could face another qualifier in the second round.
Her projected third-round opponent is 28th seed Lesia Tsurenko.
"If you do a quick summary of the four quarters, you would say that out of the draw, it would be Aryna who's come out possibly with the cleanest and clearer run," observed Woodbridge.
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Sabalenka has become the game’s most consistent Grand Slam force, reaching at least the semifinal stage at her past five major tournaments. She also reached last year’s US Open final, falling in three sets to Gauff.
Sabalenka is attempting to join Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati as the only women this century to reach the semifinals of six consecutive Grand Slam tournaments.
5. Final rematch on the cards
With Rybakina landing in Swiatek’s half of the draw, this means an Australian Open 2023 final rematch is possible.
The clash between Sabalenka and Rybakina at Melbourne Park last year remains one of the finest Grand Slam women’s finals we’ve enjoyed in recent years.
“(It) was the biggest-hitting women's final I think I've ever seen,” former world No.8 Alicia Molik told ausopen.com, having commentated on the match. “Every point, there were barely any unforced errors. They were beating each other with big hitting, consistently and constantly.
“It was top quality tennis.”
Rybakina won their most recent meeting last week in Brisbane to narrow the head-to-head ledger to 3-5.
But with so much quality throughout the 128-player field, so many players vying for glory, and countless thrilling storylines set to unfold, it’s hard to predict which two women will be the last ones standing on the tournament’s final Saturday.