AUSTRALIAN OPEN, PREVIEW DAY 7, 19 JANUARY 2014.

There may be some conflicted patriotism in a certain rowdy bunch of spectators when Casey Dellacqua takes on Eugenie Bouchard in a round-of-16 match in Rod Laver Arena tonight.

The comely, 19-year-old Canadian has an enthusiastic cheer squad at Melbourne Park that calls itself ‘Genie’s Army.’ They are all Melburnians and deck themselves in $25 t-shirts that spell out G-E-N-I-E-! – with the emphasis on that exclamation mark.

“Their songs are getting stuck in my head because they’re singing them so much,” Bouchard joked on Friday after her third-round win over Lauren Davis.

Bouchard and Dellacqua, daughters of Commonwealth nations, come from varied backgrounds. Bouchard, of French-Canadian and Irish-Canadian ancestry, grew up in the Montreal suburb of Westmount on the same street as former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Dellacqua, was raised in an Italian-heritage family in Perth, with a grandmother who was the eldest of 10 children and who, according to Casey, “is a lovely lady, loves every one of us (grandchildren) equally.”

As Dellacqua, ranked No. 120, noted on Friday, “even eight months ago I was playing a couple of $50,000 (Challenger) events in Bendigo.” Eight months ago, Bouchard was already in Philippe Chatrier Court at Roland Garros playing Maria Sharapova (a loss), and then a month later faced Ana Ivanovic (a win) in Centre Court at Wimbledon.

So the 178cm Canadian, Wimbledon junior champion in 2012, has experience on the biggest stages and should not be over-awed at Rod Laver Arena.

Dellacqua, 28 and 165cm, is aware of Bouchard’s ability, saying, “she’s a very quality player. She’s seeded (30) here. She’s on the rise. She’s got a great serve. She’s going to be tough.”

For all Bouchard’s showbiz glitz – Nike photo-shoots with Sharapova and Roger Federer etc. – she’s a tough-as-nails, highly-driven competitor.

She has powerful ground strokes the like of which Dellacqua has not faced so far at Melbourne Park. Dealing with them will be the West Australian’s No. 1 priority, along with more seasonal temperatures and not the extremes that allowed her feel “solar-powered” in her last two matches.

Like Dellacqua, Ana Ivanovic will face a big challenge against an opponent’s ruthless shotmaking – and so far in four career meetings with Serena Williams, the 26-year-old Serb has yet to win more than four games in a set. Still, Ivanovic has nothing to lose and should feel liberated after Friday’s rollercoaster win over Samantha Stosur.

Li Na is also playing with house money after surviving a match point against Lucie Safarova in the third round. She is 4-0 versus next opponent Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, but their matches have usually been close.

The most intriguing of Sunday’s men’s matches has sturdy Swiss Stan Wawrinka playing Tommy Robredo. The 31-year-old Spaniard is having a brilliant second act to his career after three mediocre seasons marred by a leg injury that required surgery. It’s surprising he carries a 6-1 head-to-head advantage over Wawrinka going into the Rod Laver Arena match tonight, winning both meetings in 2013.

Less of a surprise is that Tomas Berdych is 9-0 versus Kevin Anderson, with all those matches in 2012-13, and that Novak Djokovic is unbeaten (6-0) against flamboyant Fabio Fognini.

Getting back to Bouchard-Dellacqua, if ‘Genie’s Army’ is able to get tickets and make its presence felt, and the world famous ‘Fanatics’ are in their usual rambunctious form supporting Dellacqua, Rod Laver patrons are in for a good old Aussie stoush tonight.

By Tom Tebbutt, AUSTRALIAN OPEN

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2014. PREVIEW DAY 16 JANUARY 2014.

Serena Williams was once inclined to make blasé comments in the wake of yet another demolishing of opponents at events all over the world.

Now, a more mature 32, she makes a point of showing them respect. That includes calling No. 104 Vesna Dolonc of Serbia, whom she beat 6-1, 6-2 in the second round, “a really good player.” For five-time champion Williams, it was a 60th match win in 14 appearances at the Australian Open.

She is coming off a 78-4 record in 2013 – those 78 victories being 16 more than her previous high for a single season.

“It always seems like I’m one of the favourites to win,” Williams said about her status at Melbourne Park. “But for me, I look at it as kind of exciting that I have a chance to go all the way.”

Her next opponent on Friday is 30-year-old Daniela Hantuchova. Oddly, these two 30-somethings have not played since 2009.

Williams has an 8-1 career advantage, with the only loss coming at the same stage – the round of 32 – at the Australian Open in 2006.

But that was a different Serena Williams. She started that season ranked No. 95 after knee surgery in 2005. Tellingly, she was so lacking in confidence that she asked a tour official before playing Hantuchova where her ranking would fall to if she lost – never a good sign.

But it didn’t take long for her to regain her swagger. In her most recent match with the willowy Slovak, Williams prevailed 6-2 6-0 at the 2009 US Open.

Day five of this year’s event features a pair of Aussie fan favourites, the ever-unpredictable Samantha Stosur and Casey Dellacqua, the West Australian who claimed after her 6-3 6-0 victory over 18th seed Kirsten Flipkens in Wednesday’s heat that she was “solar-powered.”

Stosur plays Ana Ivanovic for a place in the fourth round. Theirs is a very even rivalry – Stosur leads 4-3 but they split two meetings late in 2013. Stosur won in Moscow and Ivanovic in Sofia. They did likewise in their only previous Grand Slam encounters in 2006 – Stosur prevailing at the Australian Open and Ivanovic at Roland Garros.

Ivanovic, a former No. 1 (2008), was 1-13 versus top-10 players in 2013 but feels reinvigorated by a new team headed by coach and fellow-Serb Nemanja Kontic. “They’re very positive, and that’s something I was lacking in the past,” said the world No. 14. “I really feel I broke out of that little negative spell. I just feel happy competing.”

Both she and Stosur have excellent serves (notwithstanding occasional double faults) and explosive game styles, so it should be a competitive match.

The Dellacqua-Zheng Jie encounter will involve a lot of chopping. The 28-year-old Aussie prepared for her last opponent, Flipkens, by practicing against under-spin shots. That should help against Zheng whose modus operandi is to slice and dice from her low centre of gravity on court.

Among the men’s highlights expected on the fifth day – the fourth consecutive of searing heat – will be No. 3 seed David Ferrer against in-form Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, and the combustible Jerzy Janowicz of Poland versus precision-shotmaker of Florian Mayer of Germany.

Three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic, wearing his long-brimmed white cap, is seeking shelter from the sun and anything unexpected from his free-swinging opponent, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.