In the first round, Monica plays a 19-year-old Slovenka, L'ubomira
Kurhajcová. Monica has never lost in the first round of a Grand Slam,
and I don't expect her to start now. But that's what I thought going
into Wimbledon 1996, when Monica had never lost in the second round of
a Grand Slam! ;-)

In the second round, Monica would play the winner of two qualifiers,
Klara Koukalová and 15-year-old Maria Sharapova. I'm very pleased to
see that Maria qualified, and I hope she will be the one who gets to
play Monica. It would be their third meeting: Monica won 6-2 6-0 at
Indian Wells 2002, and 6-3 6-0 at last week's Hong Kong challenge, so
perhaps this time it will be 6-4 6-0! ;-)

Meghann Shaughnessy is seeded to be Monica's third-round opponent, but
as a Slovak-fetishist I'm hoping it will be L'udmila Cervanová.
Shaughnessy could be very dangerous as she hits the ball hard and beat
Monica at Scottsdale 2001.

There are a number of possible fourth-round opponents for Monica. The
seedings decree it should be Magdalena Maleeva, but it could well be
Elena Bovina, or even Cho Yoon-Jeong who gave Monica such a torrid
time at the US Open 2002! But I hope it will be the Selesian player,
Marion Bartoli, who I think has a good chance against Maleeva in the
first round after reaching the semi-finals at Canberra this week.

It is difficult to envisage anyone other than Serena Williams becoming
Monica's quarter-final opponent. I have to say that Serena is looking
bl**dy invincible at the moment, and I'd love nothing better than to
see Monica take her down a peg or two, by beating her as she did Venus
in last year's quarter-finals.

With Daniela Hantuchová facing a likely quarter-final with Venus
Williams, is this to be yet another major tournament where I will have
two quarter-finalists only for them both to lose to the Williams sisters?


Projected draw according to seedings:
3r:
SERENA WILLIAMS [1] v TAMARINE TANASUGARN [26]
ELENI DANIILIDOU [18] v NATHALIE DECHY [16]
MAGDALENA MALEEVA [11] v ELENA BOVINA [20]
MEGHANN SHAUGHNESSY [25] v MONICA SELES [6]

KIM CLIJSTERS [4] v IVA MAJOLI [29]
AMANDA COETZER [19] v ANNA PISTOLESI [14]
CHANDA RUBIN [10] v ELENA DEMENTIEVA [17]
CLARISA FERNÁNDEZ [28] v ANASTASIA MYSKINA [8]

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE [5] v KATARINA SREBOTNIK [32]
TATIANA PANOVA [24] v LINDSAY DAVENPORT [9]
ALEXANDRA STEVENSON [15] v ANNE KREMER [22]
JANETTE HUSÁROVÁ [30] v JENNIFER CAPRIATI [3]

DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [7] v CONCHITA MARTÍNEZ [31]
AI SUGIYAMA [21] v PATTY SCHNYDER [12]
SILVIA FARINA ELIA [13] v PAOLA SUÁREZ [23]
LISA RAYMOND [27] v VENUS WILLIAMS [2]

4r:
SERENA WILLIAMS [1] v NATHALIE DECHY [16]
MAGDALENA MALEEVA [11] v MONICA SELES [6]
KIM CLIJSTERS [4] v ANNA PISTOLESI [14]
CHANDA RUBIN [10] v ANASTASIA MYSKINA [8]

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE [5] v LINDSAY DAVENPORT [9]
ALEXANDRA STEVENSON [15] v JENNIFER CAPRIATI [3]
DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [7] v PATTY SCHNYDER [12]
SILVIA FARINA ELIA [13] v VENUS WILLIAMS [2]

qf:
SERENA WILLIAMS [1] v MONICA SELES [6]
KIM CLIJSTERS [4] v ANASTASIA MYSKINA [8]
JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE [5] v JENNIFER CAPRIATI [3]
DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [7] v VENUS WILLIAMS [2]


My dream tournament, given the draw:
3r:
SERENA WILLIAMS [1] v Alina Jidkova
Amy Frazier v NATHALIE DECHY [16]
Marion Bartoli v Aniko Kaprós
Ludmila Cervanová v MONICA SELES [6]

KIM CLIJSTERS (4) v IVA MAJOLI [29]
AMANDA COETZER (19) v ANNA PISTOLESI [14]
Mary Pierce v ELENA DEMENTIEVA [17]
CLARISA FERNÁNDEZ [28] v ANASTASIA MYSKINA [8]

Anna Kournikova v KATARINA SREBOTNIK [32]
Stanislava Hrozenska [Q] v Iroda Tulyaganova
Denisa Chladková v ANNE KREMER [22]
JANETTE HUSÁROVÁ [30] v JENNIFER CAPRIATI [3]

DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [7] v María Antonia Sánchez Lorenzo
AI SUGIYAMA [21] v Wynne Prakusya
SILVIA FARINA ELIA [13] v PAOLA SUÁREZ [23]
LISA RAYMOND [27] v VENUS WILLIAMS [2]

4r:
SERENA WILLIAMS [1] v NATHALIE DECHY [16]
Marion Bartoli v MONICA SELES [6]
IVA MAJOLI [29] v AMANDA COETZER [19]
Mary Pierce v ANASTASIA MYSKINA [8]

Anna Kournikova v Iroda Tulyaganova
Denisa Chladková v JENNIFER CAPRIATI [3]
DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [7] v Wynne Prakusya
PAOLA SUAREZ [23] v VENUS WILLIAMS [2]

qf:
SERENA WILLIAMS [1] v MONICA SELES [6]
IVA MAJOLI [29] v ANASTASIA MYSKINA [8]
Iroda Tulyaganova v JENNIFER CAPRIATI [3]
DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [7] v VENUS WILLIAMS [2]

sf:
MONICA SELES [6] v IVA MAJOLI [29]
Iroda Tulyaganova v DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [7]

f:
MONICA SELES [6] v DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [7]

Champion: MONICA SELES [6]

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/