Samantha Stosur and Casey Dellacqua must batten down the hatches and weather fierce serving storms to survive second-round danger matches on Thursday at the Australian Open.
Australia’s only two seeds at Melbourne Park face two of the most-fearsome servers on tour, with Stosur’s opponent Coco Vandeweghe the owner of the 10th-fastest delivery of all time.
The American fired down the 200km/h thunderbolt at Indian Wells last year, less than a fortnight before edging Stosur in a three-set thriller in Miami.
Vandeweghe, ranked only 17 spots below Stosur at No.37 in the world, also features prominently in several other 2014 serving categories.
She led the tour for first service points won with 75.2 per cent, with world No.1 Serena Williams and sister Venus second and third respectively and Stosur 10th.
Vandeweghe also ranked second for service games won with 77.4 per cent and third for total aces with 306 – behind only Serena and Sydney International finalist Karolina Pliskova.
Stosur appeared in the top 10 in each of those departments as well and knows service breaks will be gold on Thursday.
“Coco has one of the biggest serves on tour,” said the 20th seed.
“Doesn’t really hold back on any shot, whether it’s serve or groundstrokes.
“She’s a big girl. She has lots of power. You’ve got to kind of combat that with what you’ve got to do. That’s hard.
“There’s not going to be too many long rallies.”
Victory, though, would be well worth it for Stosur, with the reward a third-round clash on Saturday against another unseeded American – Madison Brengle or Irina Falconi.
Just six rankings spots separate Dellacqua and her second-round foe, with highly rated American teenager Madison Keys only missing out on a seeding by just one position.
But like Vandeweghe, what Keys lacks in the seeding department, the 19-year-old makes up for on serve.
Keys arrived at Melbourne Park boasting the fastest recorded delivery of the season, a 198km/h rocket landed in Sydney.
Keys beat Dellacqua in their only previous encounter, also at the Australian Open two years ago, and said she knew what to expect from the big-hitting left-hander.
“I’m pretty sure there’s not going to be one person cheering for me,” Keys said.
“Aussie fans are diehard. They will 100 per cent back their player.
“I don’t think it’s quite like that anywhere else. It’s really cool to see and actually kind of fun to play against an Aussie here.
“That’ll definitely be an aspect of it, but Casey is a total fighter. She grinds through matches.”
The winner will likely earn a third-round shot at Wimbledon champion and fourth seed Petra Kvitova.
Adopted Aussie Ajla Tomjlanovic also plays on Thursday and, after dropping the first set in her opener, knows she needs to make a better start against American 30th seed Varvara Lepchenko.
“If I can do that, I’ll have a pretty good chance,” Tomjlanovic said.
