Two top-10 women known for their consistency look to outlast flashy young shot-makers on Saturday at the Australian Open.

A Hidden Gem: Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

In virtually every major tennis tournament, fans are treated to at least one blockbuster match.  It is a contest between two of the sport’s biggest stars and often one of its premiere rivalries.  Then there are those hidden gems.  They are the matches that do not necessarily garner the headlines but could turn into something special.  Saturday’s play features one such match, when Radwanska takes on Pavlyuchenkova.

You would not know it by the way she is flying under the radar, but Radwanska is the No. 5 seed at this year’s Australian Open.  A good part of the reason she has been flying under the radar is her form coming into this event.  While she was able to pick up a couple of solid victories in Hopman Cup play, she was dumped out in the opening round of Sydney by Bethanie Mattek-Sands.  She also continues to struggle with a niggling shoulder injury at times.

But Radwanska is not the No. 5 seed for nothing.  She has already achieved a lot in her young career and done much to grow tennis in her native Poland.  She has amassed 13 career singles titles, reached the final of Wimbledon in 2012, and risen to a career-high singles ranking of No. 2.  In some ways, Radwanska’s achievements seem all the more remarkable because she has managed to accomplish them in this era of power tennis.  The Pole lacks the firepower of many opponents, but she is able to make up for it with her quick hands, court craft, and guile.  It is that style of play that has earned her more than a few Fan Favorite Awards, and it frustrates many opponents.

Pavlyuchenkova will have to show plenty of patience if she wants to avoid becoming one of Radwanska’s frustrated victims, and she will need to have plenty of belief in her own game.  The No. 30 seed from Russia is a dangerous opponent.  Just two years ago, she looked to be one of the most promising of the next crop of young players, collecting wins over players like Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova, and Angelique Kerber as she shot up to No. 13 in the rankings.  Unfortunately, her results have suffered since then, which is why she came into Melbourne on the heels of poor showings in Brisbane and Hobart and ranked No. 30.

Pavlyuchenkova is no doubt looking to turn her results around, and collecting a big win over Radwanska would be a huge step in that process.  The Russian is in with a fighting chance.  Although she is 1-3 against the Pole, two of those matches went the distance, while three of the four featured tiebreaks.  Radwanska’s three consecutive Australian Open quarterfinal showings look much better than the lone 2011 third-round appearance for the Russian, but Pavlyuchnkova knows how to win on these courts.  As a Junior, she won this event back-to-back in 2006 and 2007.  Those early successes showed that these hard courts should suit her baseline game well.

Irrespective of the outcome, this is going to be an important match for both parties.  Radwanska needs to live up to her seeding and remind everyone that she is still at the top and can continue to stay there.  For Pavlyuchenkova, it is a chance to once again begin delivering on the promise she showed a couple of years ago.  If both women bring their A-games, fans will watch a contest between contrasting styles that is more of a rarity than the norm in today’s game.

Up For Grabs: Caroline Wozniacki vs. Garbine Muguruza

At first glance, Wozniacki would appear to be a solid favorite in this match.  She is the seeded player and currently rounds out the WTA’s top 10.  She has been exceptionally consistent in Melbourne, reaching the second week the last four years, including a semifinal appearance in 2011.  She has also been ranked No. 1 and became a Grand Slam finalist thanks to her run at the US Open in 2009. 

But, for all of the milestones that Wozniacki has achieved in her young career, her more recent results and current form are far from intimidating.  Coming into Melbourne, she was dumped out in the second round of the Sydney tune-up event, and her trademark consistency was also missing in her previous match against Christina McHale.  Although she looked sharp from the outset to take the first set 6-0, things quickly took a downward spiral.  McHale picked up her own level, while Wozniacki’s level dropped.  The result was a one-sided 6-1 set in favor of McHale.  Luckily for Wozniacki, she was able to recover to comfortably win the third set 6-2, but it was hardly an awe-inspiring performance.

While Wozniacki is looking potentially vulnerable, many might not think that her opponent, Muguruza, is the most likely of candidates to upset her.  That is not the case, however.  At age 20, Muguruza is one of the WTA’s rising stars.  She is currently ranked a career-high No. 38, reached the quarterfinals in Auckland and just won her maiden title in Hobart.  Having reached the fourth round of both Premier Mandatory events in Indian Wells and Miami last year, Muguruza is a player who has already exhibited plenty of promise in her burgeoning career. After she missed the latter half of 2013 with an ankle injury, she is apt to be hungry to build on what has become her best performance at the Australian Open.

Muguruza can draw confidence about her chances of building on her performance from her lone meeting with Wozniacki in Miami last season.  The Spaniard not only came out on top, but she dismissed Wozniacki by a routine score line of 6-2, 6-4.  Wozniacki is unlikely to have forgotten this loss, and if she hopes to avoid a similar fate in Saturday’s match, she will need to clean up her game.  She may have been able to scrape by with a victory against McHale, a player struggling with her own form, but she is not as apt to enjoy a similar type of escape against an in-form Muguruza.

The bottom line is that there is no clear favorite in this match.  Wozniacki holds the edge in the experience department, while Muguruza is clearly playing better tennis.