Dear readers, Florian Meier from OnlineTennisInstruction.com is back to preview the US Open quarterfinals. One of his and actually the world's biggest favorites Maria Sharapova was eliminated early, but Serena Williams is still doing strong. Let's see what Florian's predictions look like now.

US Open quarterfinals preview: Serena still the tournament favorite

We are now at the quarterfinals stage of the tournament and Serena looks almost unbeatable to me at this point (join our poll to vote who has the best chance of shaking Serena's dominance this US Open). Let’s have a closer look at the upcoming quarterfinal match-ups.

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI versus ANDREA PETKOVIC

Wozniacki has had a really good draw so far in this tournament and to me she was not all that convincing in her victory against Svetlana Kuznetsova. I am not sure how strong her form actually is. She was down 4-1 in the second set against Kuznetsova who is also not in her best form at the moment.

Andrea Petkovic looked convincing in her last two matches but she has not faced any really strong players so far in this tournament. Petkovic is also playing with an injured knee but it seems to be holding up fine so far in the tournament. Wozniacki and Petkovic are 1-1 in their career matches. Petkovic won this year on a hard court in Miami and Wozniacki won on an indoor clay court in Stuttgart.
In order to beat Wozniacki you have to be able to get by her with some firepower and be patient enough to work the point a few times. I believe Petkovic has these capabilities. Andrea is fired up like I have never seen her before and I think she is also mentally ready to beat someone like Wozniacki in a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Assuming that Petkovic’s knee holds up, I pick her as my favorite in a very close match.

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Serena Williams is storming through the US Open draw and her confidence, stability and power make me wonder if there is any player on the Tour that could beat this Williams. Therefore, instead of doing a regular poll on who your favorites for the US Open title are, I am asking you whether you think Serena has a major threat en route to the title?

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In brackets there is Serena's head-to-head record against players and as you can see she's leading each one of them. In her first tournament after a year-long absence, Eastbourne, Serena lost to Vera Zvonareva 3-6 7-6(5) 7-5 and in August she played Samantha Stosur, in the Toronto final, and won 6-4 6-2, one of her two Premier titles in five tournaments she played since her comeback in June.

In the quarterfinals of the 2011 US Open Williams plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who eliminated Jelena Jankovic and Francesca Schiavone from the tournament. Williams' possible semifinal opponent is world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki cruised through the first three rounds of the US Open losing only 12 games and now she’s in the quarterfinals after a 6-7(6) 7-5 6-1 victory over 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In the first set both players had their serves broken three times and even though Wozniacki was the first to lead in the tiebreaker, 5-2, Kuznetsova came out of the opening set victorious, despite her 31 unforced errors. In the second set Wozniacki came back from a 4-1 deficit to take the match to the third set, through which she cruised.

Kuznetsova actually finished the match with a total of 78 unforced errors to Wozniacki's 26. Of course, Kuznetsova hit more winners, 40 to her opponent's 20.

Wozniacki’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be tenth seed Andrea Petkovic who defeated Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1 6-4 in the fourth round.

Additional info: Wozniacki, as well as Maria Sharapova, are the first players to qualify for the TEB-BNP Paribas WTA Championships, to take place in Istanbul, Turkey. It will be Wozniacki's third straight year to play the elite year-end Championships, while Sharapova hadn't qualified since 2007. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Besides the second set against Victoria Azarenka in the third round, Serena Williams has faced no real challenge at the US Open, including her today's encounter with Ana Ivanovic – the former world No.1 was just another unmemorable target on Williams' surge through the tournament.

The 28th-seeded Williams is already in the quarterfinals, having dropped her serve only two times on the way. Knowing the state of Williams' and Ivanovic's tennis, Ivanovic can unfortunately be happy that she was one of the two players who broke the American's serve this US Open and that she won seven games during the fourth round match, 6-3 6-4.

Next for Williams will be first time US Open quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who defeated seed No.7 Francesca Schiavone 5-7 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 41 minutes after they committed a combined 21 double faults and dropped serve 16 times. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

New York and fashion go hand in hand, and tennis outfits are no exception, especially when we have a high-profile event such as the US Open. So let's see what the manufacturers of tennis clothes prepared for our WTA stars and there is no better way to start than with American Bethanie Mattek Sands who integrated patriotism in her attire.

Don't you love the American-flag tube socks and the accompanying red shoes? Bethanie looks awesome in her Under Armour outfit with accessories that perfectly match the US Open occasion.

Bethanie is known for her experiments with fashion and her most recent took place before and during Wimbledon, when she incorporated tennis balls in her player party and on-court outfits.

Venus Williams shocked with her EleVen US Open dress as much as she did with her subsequent abrupt withdrawal due to a long-undiagnosed syndrome.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki and Stella McCartney absolutely failed to inspire with a white dress much more suitable for Wimbledon. Why not use colors for the US Open when you can?

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