The Baseline Top 5: WTA floaters at the Australian Open

Such is life on the professional tour where one season you’re considered one of the favorites at the Grand Slams and the next, you’re among the ranks of the unseeded, ready to knock off the players that are once where you were.

These five players on the WTA Tour, who’ve had success at the Australian Open and beyond on their way to the top 10, will be looking to knock off a slew of higher-ranked players early on and set the tone for the tournament. (All photos: Getty Images)

1

Caroline Wozniacki

Could a fairytale ending be in store for the former world No. 1 in Melbourne? This is the last tournament of a Hall-of-Fame-worthy career for Wozniacki, and the 2018 champion at the event could be in for a somewhat-lengthy stay. She started Monday with a dominate 6-1, 6-3 win over Kristie Ahn. The two seeds in her near-immediate path are Dayana Yastremska and Johanna Konta, both of whom are coming off very strong 2019 campaigns. Experience—and a desire to end her career on a high—could make the difference in a sustained run for the Dane.

2

Julia Goerges

The past several seasons have been the best of the veteran German’s career, but, when it appeared that she was going to establish a foothold within the Top 10, she came back down to earth toward the end of 2019 and finished outside of the top 30. Still, she knows how to play well at the start of the year, as evidenced by her Auckland victories in 2018 and ’19. She was denied a three-peat there by Wozniacki in the quarterfinals and Belinda Bencic beat her in her next tournament. Melbourne hasn’t been too hospitable to Goerges of late, and she’s in a tough section of the draw with No.13-seeded Petra Martic. She opened strong on Monday with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Viktoria Kuzmova.

3

Daria Kasatkina

Madison Keys, the No. 10 seed, finds herself in one of those unenviable situations for the first round of a Grand Slam: facing a former top player who’s had impressive results in the recent past, but is struggling and looking for a big win to turn things around. Kasatkina, a recent member of the top 10 that’s now down to 70 in the world after struggling throughout last year, will try to post one of the tournament’s biggest upsets early on as she’ll come out swinging with no pressure on her.

4

Jelena Ostapenko

The main thing that kept Ostapenko from being seeded at the Australian Open this year is that she ran out of time on her 2019 season. After an inconsistent 2018 and struggles throughout most of last year, the 2017 French Open champion caught fire the last two weeks of ’19 with a final in Linz, Austria, and the title in Luxembourg. The hard-hitting Latvian could face a qualifier in the first round and sixth seed Belinda Bencic in the second, with a win potentially setting her up for a resurgent campaign.

5

CoCo Vandeweghe

In 2017, the American had the best season of her career, kicked off by a run to the semifinals at the Australian Open. Injuries have slowed her down throughout the bulk of the past two seasons, resulting in her needing a wild card for this year’s tournament. Vandeweghe has a tricky opener against Laura Siegemund in the first round and if she were to get past that, could see the number-two seed, Karolina Pliskova, in the second round. Memory could serve Vandeweghe well in that encounter: She upset the Czech at the 2017 US Open quarterfinals.