Regardless of how the Australian goes, the trick is to actually do preparation on Red Clay this time. We can see Charleston is doing nothing for her FO chances. May as well skip it and go straight to Europe. She hasn't made a SF in so many years on this routine, change things up.
It's a shame Madrid is such an awful tournament but try to defend there and then treat Rome as if it was a Grand Slam. In 2002 Rome was her form and luck charm going into the French and you could see how seriously she was taking the matches there. Rome is the best predictor for Serena's FO performance:
2002 won & won
2003 close SF loss in both
2004 loss to Capriati
2010 close loss with MP in both
2008&2012 w/o & mental w/o at the FO
