The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam tournament of the year and one of the most important of the season. It attracts great interest from the audience, who consider it the most spectacular of all competitions in women's tennis. Of course, we could not help but include it in the list of sports tournaments that we must watch in 2015.
But if it was not possible to master the night broadcasts (due to the time difference, the first matches in Melbourne start at 3 am Moscow time), then we will try to fill in the gaps and tell who, how and what they performed.
Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova at the end of last season was recognized as one of the disappointments of the year. For the second racket of the world, this became an additional motivation, and already at the first Grand Slam tournament in 2015, we see her in the semifinals. At the same time, the Russian tennis player looked pretty confident throughout all matches. The only exception was Masha's game with her compatriot Alexandra Panova, in the last set she was very close to defeat. But then Sharapova felt confident and literally ran the remaining distance in one breath. In the semifinals, she will meet with another Russian woman - Ekaterina Makarova.
Maria Sharapova performs in sportswear from Nike, of which she is. Especially for the Russian athlete, the brand produces Lunar Speed 3 sneakers with the initials MS. Sharapova on the court prefers brightly colored tennis dresses, for the Australian Open she chose red.
Ekaterina Makarova
On the eve of the Australian Open, Ekaterina Makarova flew out of the top ten of the WT (Women's Tennis Association) rating. Therefore, at the tournament in Melbourne, the Russian woman had to prove that she belongs to the elite, and the decline in results is a temporary matter. What Katya did successfully. For the first time in her career, Makarova reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, literally sweeping away her rivals on her way. She not only did not give up a single set for the entire tournament, but she was not even close to that. In the quarterfinals, the Russian woman very confidently defeated the third racket of the world, Simona Halep, so she should be morally ready for the semifinals with Sharapova.
Ekaterina Makarova uses equipment from Lotto. She belongs to those girls who prefer to play not in sports dresses, but in a separate set of top and skirt. For the Australian tournament, Katya Makarova chose an outfit in red and white.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is a legendary tennis player. Despite her 33 years old, she continues to play at the highest level, remaining the first racket in the world. Williams has 64 singles wins in WT tournaments and is looking to win another one in the near future. Her path to the Australian Open was difficult: 2 of her five fights lasted 3 sets. But she still made it to the semifinals, where her rival will be the young American Madison Keys, who is 14 years younger than Serena. By the way, she sent Williams' older sister home in the quarterfinals.
For her performances, Serena Williams chooses outfits from Nike. Usually she can be seen on the court in sports dresses and with a bandage on her head - the American does not wear a visor. At the Australian Open, Serena Williams appears in neon-colored clothing.
Dominika Tsibulkova
If the names of Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams sound far beyond the limits of tennis courts, then only specialists and attentive spectators know about Dominika Tsibulkova. This Slovak athlete began to achieve decent results only last year, when she reached the final of the Australian Open. At the same time, she climbed to the 10th position in the ranking, which she is to this day. In 2014, Dominika Tsibulkova decided to try herself in the design field and developed a clothing line. And this year she reached the quarterfinals of the first Grand Slam tournament and lost to Serena Williams. Tsibulkova's rivals got quite serious: during the competition she defeated the Frenchwoman Alize Cornet and the representative of Belarus Victoria Azarenka.
Dominika Cibulkova is one of the few tennis players to play in Lacoste uniform. At the Australian Open, she performed in a fitted white dress and pink sneakers.
Venus Williams
Venus Williams is in her third tennis youth. She has 46 victories in WT singles tournaments, including 7 Grand Slam titles. This year marks 20 years since she started playing tennis at the highest level. The American is now in 18th place in the rankings (this is her best performance since 2010), but thanks to a successful performance at the Australian Open, her position will improve. The 34-year-old athlete reached the quarterfinals of the most prestigious competition, losing at this stage to the young Madison Keys, who considers Venus her idol. On the way, she outplayed such serious opponents as Agnieszka Radwanska and Varvara Lepchenko.
On the court, Venus Williams can be seen wearing his own brand, EleVen. At this tournament, she performs in a white dress with animalistic multi-colored prints.
Eugenie Bouchard
Eugenie Bouchard is one of the discoveries of the last two seasons. The 20-year-old tennis player has already settled in 7th place in the ranking and has earned about $ 4 million in prize money in her career. This young Canadian has quite a lot of fans, some of them travel with her from tournament to tournament and call themselves "Zhenya's Army" (emphasis on the second syllable), which is completely atypical for tennis and very much like football fans. Unfortunately, loyal fans could not help Eugénie at least repeat the best result in her career at the Grand Slam tournaments, Maria Sharapova stopped Bouchard one step away from the semifinals.
A young Canadian wearing Nike sportswear. At the same time, special outfits are not made for her, as for Sharapova or Williams, so Bouchard plays in a completely ordinary pink dress, in addition to her several other tennis players perform in such.
Simona Halep
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep is known in the world not only for her outstanding results. The fact is that at the beginning of her adult career, the athlete decided on a very serious step - breast reduction. At that time, Simone was 17 and she believed that it was the size of her breasts (according to some information, her weight reached 12 kilograms) that prevented her from moving around the court. After a successful operation, the results went uphill and now Halep is in the WT3 rankings. At the current Australian Open, the young Romanian was unlucky, in the first rounds of the competition she did not meet serious opponents, and in the quarterfinals she hit Ekaterina Makarova, who did not leave Halep a single chance.
Simona Halep is one of the many female tennis players who prefer Adidas sportswear. For competitions in Melbourne, she chose an outfit in lilac colors - a skirt and a top, as well as a visor in some matches.
Victoria Azarenka
One of the brightest female tennis players of our time is the representative of Belarus Victoria Azarenka. The former first racket of the world missed almost the entire last season due to injuries. Also in 2014, Victoria experienced a breakup with the American musician Redfoo (member of the LMFAO group). In the new season, Azarenka recovered mentally and physically, stated in an interview that she had matured and was ready for a new round of her career. In the meantime, it occupies only 44th place in the rating, and the performance at the Australian Open ended one step away from the quarterfinals. The future prospects of the Belarusian tennis player are still rather vague, but this season she clearly should not be written off - Victoria is going to return to the elite.
Vika Azarenka performs in Nike clothes. Her favorite colors are white and neon green. For the Australian tournament, the tennis player chose a dress with a gradient color.
Agnieszka Radwanska
The favorite of the public and many experts in the world of tennis is the Polish sportswoman Agnieszka Radwanska. Since this season, she has been working with the famous Martina Navratilova, a very successful tennis player in the recent past. So far, this does not bring record results - she does not reach the best second place in her career in the ranking (now she is 6th), and at the Australian Open Agnieszka lost to Venus Williams in the fourth round. They clearly expected more from this Polish tennis player after last year's semifinals, and according to statistics, Radwanska always plays quite successfully in Australia.
Agnieszka Radwanska performs in Lotto Piper sports outfits with sponsors' logos printed on them. The Polish tennis player is one of the few supported by major partners. For Australia, Agnieszka chose two dresses in different colors: navy blue and white.
Alexandra Panova
One of the most memorable performances at the Australian Open this year undoubtedly belongs to Alexandra Panova. The Russian woman, occupying 150th place in the WTA rankings, has never shown outstanding results. She managed to get into the main draw of the Grand Slam tournaments only 6 times, and Sasha lost 5 times in the first match. But in 2015, she was able to outplay the Romanian Sorana Kirstyu and in the second meeting impose a serious fight on Maria Sharapova. During the match, Panova had two opportunities to end the game with a victory over the second racket of the world, but fate was not favorable to her. And even though she left the competition in the second round, this performance in the world of tennis will be remembered for a long time.
Usually Alexandra Panova appears on the courts in Nike outfit. However, at the Australian Open, it was bundled with a black top and a printed skirt, which could not be identified as belonging to a particular brand.