US Open Womens Singles Preview

The women's singles at the US Open is a much more difficult proposition than the men's to predict.

Four former champions are in the field - Venus Williams (2000 and 2001), Sveta Kuznetsova (2004), Maria Sharapova (2006) and last years winner Angie Kerber.

Past finalists in the draw include Jelena Jankovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Roberta Vinci and last years runner-up Karolina Pliskova.

Big interest In the first round match between second seed Simona Halep and wild card Maria Sharapova.  We don't know how Maria is travelling but she is not the ideal opening competition Halep would have preferred.

Maria has won all 6 clashes with Simona from 2012 through 2015, but of course circumstances now give the Romanian her best chance of breaking her duck.

Of the top 16 seeds the following have not won a WTA title in 2017:

Caroline Wozniacki (5) (6 finals)

Angie Kerber (6) (1 final)

Sveta Kuznetsova (8) (1 final)

Venus Williams (9) (2 Grand Slam finals)

Aga Radwanska (10) (1 final)

Dominika Cibulkova (11)  (1 final)

However I don't believe the winner will come from these - Wozniacki may be in the last eight but I think her run stops there.

The ones to watch for me are the top four seeds and Madison Keys (15).

Karolina Pliskova (1) may have lost in the Cincinnati semis but it was to a hot Muguruza, so no shame there.

The Czech star has won three titles this year and was ever so close to winning the US Open final last year.  The draw suggests a quarter final match up with Sveta Kuznetsova.

Simona Halep (2) won Madrid this year and has made three finals subsequently.  Although unsuccessful in those, Halep has enough experience in Grand Slam finals, including this years Roland Garros, to represent a more than credible threat - her likely quarter final opponent is seventh seed Johanna Konta.

Wimbledon champ Garbine Muguruza (3) played one of the best women's matches of 2017 in capturing the Cincinnati title a week or so back, a timely warning to everyone.

That form is enough to rate her one of the hot favourites to be in the last few, if not winning.

The one thing against the Spaniard is her record at Flushing Meadows, never having made it past the second round.

II believe that can be overcome in 2017.

Quarter final opposition, if she reaches that far, should be Caroline Wozniacki (5), a previous two time finalist.

Elina Svitolina is capable of anything this year, having won five titles, including a record three Premier 5 trophies in the one season.

However her Grand Slam efforts have fallen short of other performances. Third round at Aus Ooen, quarter final at Roland Garros and round of sixteen at Wimbledon, do not inspire ultimate success in New York.  Still, I put her in the mix.

Madison Keys, the home crowd hope, along with Venus, could be the first hurdle for Svitolina, drawn to meet the fourth seed in the fourth round.

Keys won Stanford and held three match points against Cincinnati champ Muguruza in the fourth round there.

She is a dangerous commodity.

My tips, for what they are worth:

Semi finals:

Karolina Pliskova (1) v Madison Keys (15)

Garbine Muguruza (3) v Simona Halep (2)