Australian Open 2014: Experts' picks for the women's draw

2. Early exit

Sara Errani

Abhishek Desikan: Caroline Wozniacki has been inconsistent and has been dealing with injury problems as well. Neither of which helps in the lead-up to a Grand Slam.

Adnan Akhtar: With the unpredictability of the women’s game, it was difficult to decide the player who would be knocked out early. In the end, I would go with Samatha Stosur for being that unlucky player. I think that the expectations from a vociferous home crowd coupled with a tricky draw would result in an early ouster for her from the tournament.

Avantika Tikmany: Having drawn Russian Ekaterina Makarova in Round 1, and having struggled through a consistent dip in form over the past few years, we could see Venus Williams exiting as early as the first round itself.

BallnRacquet: Sara Errani seems to have lost that fire which propelled her into the top 8 in the world. With two early losses this year, she is not in the best form to take on the rest of the elite players. Also likely to face a similar early exit will be home favourite Samantha Stosur who has regularly failed to perform well at Melbourne.

Musab Abid: Sara Errani is slated to meet Serena Williams in the quarters, but there are red flags even before that: her first round opponent is the sometimes-dangerous Julia Goerges, and Eugenie Bouchard will likely be waiting in the third round. Errani has been punching above her weight at the Slams lately, but I wouldn’t bet on it here.

Roh: Samantha Stosur went winless in the Hopman Cup in all her singles matches. Though she redeemed herself slightly in Sydney, the former USO singles champion has never been at her best in Australia. This fact makes her the player to watch out for as far as early upsets and exits are concerned.

Varun Jog: It’s been sad to watch Petra Kvitova’s decline after she had such an amazing year back in 2011. Be it distractions in her personal life or flaws with her game, she has just not been able to play like she did that year, when she also captured her only Grand Slam singles crown till date. The start to 2014 hasn’t been very good either, as she suffered a shock defeat to a qualifier in the semifinals at Sydney. I don’t know who in her draw could beat her, but given her present form, anyone could, really. Kvitova for the early plane home for me.