What to watch in Week 2: Could this be Zheng Qinwen's time at Aussie Open?

This second week of the 112^th Australian Open, going forward, could have something significant to say about the history of the women’s game. Not just who winds up with the No.1 ranking at the end of the year but, in the final analysis, who among these elite players finishes their career with the most majors.

This isn’t just reckless hyperbole -- hey, it might actually be true.

With Linda Noskova’s soaring upset of No.1 Iga Swiatek the top half of the draw is wide, wide open. Three rounds in, Swiatek, No.3 Elena Rybakina, No.5 Jessicas Pegula and No.7 Marketa Vondrousova were all gone.

Believe it or not, one of these eight players taking to the courts Monday will reach this major final: No.15 Zheng Qinwen, No.22 Victoria Azarenka, No.23 Elina Svitolina, No.31 Jasmine Paolini, No.50 Linda Noskova, No.75 Anna Kalinskaya, No.93 Dayana Yastremska and No.95 Oceane Dodin.

After all kinds of chaos, the bottom half has regained a sense of composure. No.2 Aryna Sabalenka, who is featured on Season 2 of Netflix's "Break Point," and No.4 Coco Gauff, winners of 2023’s first Grand Slam as well as the last, could collide in the semifinals. Because they are relatively early in their career trajectories of dominance, this one feels particularly important.

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Indulge us for a moment:

Sabalenka, 25, had her major breakthrough a year ago Down Under and came perilously close to winning a second Grand Slam. She reached the semifinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and lost a late lead to Gauff in the US Open final. Sabalenka has proven to be a viable threat at every major. 

A victory in Melbourne would give her a Victoria Azarenka Edition matched set, pushing her past a crowded room of recent one-time major winners. As a player whose confidence has grown enormously the past several years, that would make Sabalenka even tougher to beat. She had a taste of the top, briefly at after last year’s US Open, and she liked how it felt.

At 19, Gauff is playing her last Slam as a teenager. Her accelerated blossoming late last year was like watching a slice of time-lapse photography. And when she beat Sabalenka in New York, the destiny long foretold was hers. Imagine if she won two in a row? Who, exactly, is stopping that runaway train?

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the compelling storylines surfacing in Week 2:

Sabalenka’s path to the title

“Listen, it’s tennis,” Sabalenka told reporters. “As we see by some of the top players losing in the earlier matches that anything can happen, so I don’t want to look that far.”

No one is playing better; she’s dropped 11 games in four matches. Three of Sabalenka’s eight sets have ended with 6-0 scorelines. A 6-3, 6-2 victory over Amanda Anisimova sent her into the quarterfinals against Barbora Krejcikova, who took down ascendant 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva.

Sabalenka, on an 11-match win streak at the Australian Open, has won five of six against Krejcikova.

A Sabalenka-Gauff semifinal would be a rematch of last year’s US Open final.

Gauff’s path to the title

Gauff’s recent surge could have its origins in the Jedi mind trick suggested by her brother Codey.

“He told me, `Pretend that you have to win three sets instead of two,’ Gauff said. “If you put your mindset into the extra mile, then it seems easier. He would say, `OK, if you want to win the Grand Slam, say you have to win eight matches instead of seven.’

“I think tricking your mind kind of relaxes the body because your mind controls your body.”

In Sunday’s fourth round, Gauff defeated No.69-ranked Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-2 -- in 63 minutes. She’ll face Marta Kostyuk -- the only non-Top 10 player left in this half. Kostyuk was a 6-2, 6-1 winner over 20-year-old qualifier Maria Timofeeva.

Gauff beat Kostyuk in their only previous match, two years ago in Adelaide, in three sets.

Then it could be Sabalenka and Gauff.

An opening for Zheng? 

At the US Open, only her eighth Grand Slam main draw, Zheng reached the quarterfinals for the first time. Now the path to the semifinals here is clear. She’s the highest-seeded player left in the top half of the draw.

After a dramatic three-set win over compatriot Wang Yafan, Zheng gets Oceane Dodin. Zheng leads the head-to-head series 2-1.

The rising 21-year-old is into her third Round of 16 at Grand Slam events, the most of any Chinese player in the Open Era before turning 23. It was nice to see her congratulated in person by compatriot Li Na, the most accomplished Chinese player.

Time for teenagers

A week ago, there were 11 teenagers in the main draw and three of them reached the fourth round. Andreeva was a revelation and Gauff is predictably on course. But there’s another 19-year-old who wasn’t expected to be here. It’s Noskova who occupies the top line in the draw.

Noskova is: 

• The first teenager to defeat a World No.1 in a Grand Slam since Petra Kvitova surprised Dinara Safina at the US Open 2009.
• The first teenager to defeat a World No.1 at the Australian Open since Amelie Mauresmo upset Lindsay Davenport in 1999.
• The youngest player to defeat Swiatek since Dayana Yastremska in the 2019 Billie Jean King Cup.

Moms getting it done

There is documented evidence that giving birth can have physiological and psychological benefits for athletes -- as Azarenka and Elina Svitolina will tell you.

Azarenka thumped No.11 Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 7-5 and now gets that crack at Yastremska. No.19 Elina Svitolina upended Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-3 and faces Noskova.

“Since Leo was born I feel like the old version of myself kind of not disappeared, but it feels so foreign, it feels so far away,” Azarenka said. “I feel like I’ve just started to relearn about myself, about life, the goals and purpose. I think it’s been a pretty transformational period.”

Dependable staying power

You have to admire Barbora Krejcikova’s even-keel consistency.

She came into this tournament with a single match played, a three-set loss to qualifier Anna Kalinskaya. Three of her four matches here have gone the distance -- and yet she won them all.

In Sunday’s fourth-round match, Krejcikova dropped the first set and came back to defeat Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Previously, she had lost both encounters.

That sent her into the quarters, equaling her best major performance since winning the 2021 French Open. Krejcikova and Laura Siegemund, the No.5 seed in doubles, are still alive in that draw.