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Stosur will need to dig deep: Pleming

Sam Stosur is the lone Australian woman left at Melbourne Park in 2015 and she takes on Coco Vendeweghe tonight on Rod Laver Arena.

Louise Pleming caught up with Yahoo7Sport to preview the match, and give us her thoughts on who will win the Australian Open.

What will Stosur have to do to beat Vandeweghe?

It will be a tough one because they’re both really big servers but from the back Sam has it all over Coco. Coco doesn’t move very well and she doesn’t like that heavy ball, so Sam will be able to expose her movement. Coco did beat her recently in Miami so it will be one of those really tight serving matches. If Sam gets off to a good start and serves well she will win. It may go the distance though.

How far can Sam go in the tournament?

Sam needs to take one game at a time and not get too far ahead of herself. She’s never done really well here but the fact that she’s made a few changes shows she’s really trying to get her perspective right. This is the year that she could come out of the dark and cause some surprises. Each game she will get better and better. Her expectations are much more realistic this year.

What can Casey Dellacqua and Ajla Tomljanovic take from their losses?

Tomljanovic is a young girl and she’s improving all the time. Her coach Dave Taylor will teach her a lot about discipline and hard work. She’s got a lot of talent and plenty of years ahead and I think she’s heading in the right direction.

Casey was just a little bit unlucky. She started off really well and had chances to break early in the second set but she didn’t take them. Madison Keys managed to reel off some big serves and Casey couldn’t get back into the match.

Madison is another really talented young girl and she is probably going to be cracking the top 10 very soon, so Casey was unlucky. She needs to manipulate the ball more and manipulate her opponent. But she’s very confident at the moment and very down to earth, so I think Casey is going to have a great year.

Who is your favourite to go all the way?

As the tournament goes on I think Serena is everyone’s favourite. Today she was a little sketchy in the first set but somehow managed to claw back and win the match, so she has to be the woman to beat. At the start of the tournament I liked Maria Sharapova after her win in Brisbane, but I’m not sure about Maria. The Australian Ppen is always a bit of a tough one for Maria so I’m going to go with Serena.

Can anyone cause a boilover and beat Serena?

Garbine Muguruza is going to be one of the players to watch on the WTA tour. She’s tall, big serve, great attitude on the court and a really nice girl. The only problem is she may come up against Serena in the fourth round.

Louise Pleming is a retired Australian tennis player and commentator for Channel 7