2016 US Open: Top 5 dark horses for the Women's Singles tournament
It’s only a matter of a couple of days before the US Open gets underway and all the players will be looking forward to put up a good showing at the final Grand Slam of the year. A couple of days ago, the draw came out which featured more than just a few thrilling matchups. In one of my previous articles, I had discussed about the favorites for the Women’s singles tournament.
However, when there is a favorite, there is bound to be a dark horse or in this tournament, quite a few given the amount of upsets that have been caused in the last couple of tournaments. With all the players gearing up for the year’s final major, let’s take a look at five of the dark horses for the Women’s Singles tournament at the US Open.
#5. Petra Kvitova
The two-time Wimbledon Champion had a disappointing start to her year, recording 2-4 in main draw matches for the first couple of months owing to illness. Her poor form continued in the clay court season which propelled her plummet from the top 10 for the first time since 2013.
However, she finally found her form during the Rio Olympics where she eventually won the bronze medal, beating a resilient Madison Keys in a closely contested bronze medal play-off.
For the first time since the 2011 Australian Open will Kvitova be seeded outside the Top 10, seeded 14th this time. However, her promising performance at Rio are enough to say that the left-handed Czech will be looking to put up a tough fight at the US Open.
Kvitova’s first round opponent will be Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko who beat her at the Aegon Classic a few months back as well as at the Qatar Open. Kvitova will be expected to make it at least to the fourth round where she’ll be up against hot favorite Angelique Kerber.
Although Kerber’s form has been nothing short of marvelous this year, if Kvitova puts up a performance similar to that of Rio, she is bound to give Kerber a run for her money and maybe even better her all-time US Open performance of reaching the quarter-finals which she achieved last year.