The Australian Open draws are released TONIGHT! Normally I stay up for them, but I really can’t be bothered this year.  I remember last year that the pre-draw activities went on for about an hour so the draw didn’t take place until Midnight… I will look forward to scanning both draws on Friday morning and my intention is to get the women’s preview out on Friday evening (UK time) but don’t hold me to it! Both draws should be fascinating, but particularly the women with many legitimate contenders and dark horses.  I have no idea yet who I will be picking as my champion…

Before the Australian Open gets underway on Monday, we still have the finals for Sydney, Auckland and Hobart.  On Friday morning, Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova will play each other for the Apia International title in Sydney.  Pliskova maintained her strong start to the year with a superb performance in the semi-finals, defeating Angelique Kerber, 6-3 6-2.  Pliskova hit 32 winners, won 30 out of 31 first service points and did not face a break point during the 55 minute contest.  This was a great week for Kerber who gained plenty of court time, but should have time to recuperate before the start of the Australian Open on Monday.  In the second of the semi-finals, Kvitova gained revenge for her semi-final loss to Tsvetana Pironkova last year with a 7-5 6-1 victory.  Pironkova was on a 14-match winning streak in Sydney, but all the matches finally caught up to her as Petra came from a break down in the first set and took control of the match in the second set to win in 67 minutes.

Petra and Karolina have played each other once before in Wuhan at the end of 2014; Petra won in three sets, 6-3 2-6 6-4.  This promises to be a very tight match and I think it will come down to a few points here and there with both players dominating on serve.  In particular, Pliskova’s serve is a real weapon and her backhand down-the-line has been firing beautifully so far this year.  Both players have the tendency to go off their game so i’m expecting this final to have some ebbs and flows, and go the distance.  Pliskova will have gained a lot of confidence from her start to the year and she has a big enough game to trouble Kvitova.  However i’m going to stick with my original prediction of Petra, who has always been lethal in finals…

Prediction: Kvitova d. Pliskova in 3 sets

Poll Results: 56% of people readers predicted that Pliskova would beat Kerber and 46% predicted that Kvitova would beat Pironkova.