Thursday at the Australian Open tennis tournament sees the second round of both singles draws coming to a close with some of the biggest names in the game looking to make their way into the last 32 of the event.
We saw the likes of Andy Murray, Angelique Kerber, Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka make it through on Wednesday and on Thursday it is the turn of stars such as Novak Djokovic, Milos Raonic and Serena Williams to follow them.
Rod Laver Arena
Britain’s Jo Konta gets to start of the action on the main court on Thursday when she takes on the Japanese player everyone is talking about in Naomi Osaka. They are followed by an attractive match between Caroline Wozniacki and Donna Vekic before the defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic rounds off the day session against Denis Istomin.
The night session looks tasty on Thursday. It begins with the powerful clash between Serena Williams and Lucie Safarova before Rafael Nadal takes on Marcos Baghdatis to finish the day.
Margaret Court Arena
Big serving Czech star Karolina Pliskova faces Anna Blinkova in the first match on this court before Dominika Cibulkova takes on Su-Wei Hsieh. The day session concludes with the big serving battle between Gilles Muller and Milos Raonic.
Two star names play out the night session on this court as Agnieszka Radwanska takes on Mirjana Lucic-Baroni before Dominic Thiem aims to enhance his blossoming reputation when he goes up against Jordan Thompson.
Hisense Arena
The schedule on Hisense is very good on Thursday. It kicks off with the women’s clash between Sara Errani and Ekaterina Makarova before Grigor Dimitrov takes on Hyeon Chung. Gael Monfils follows them when he goes up against Alexandr Dolgopolov before the evening match between Daria Gavrilova and Ana Konjuh which will have a decent crowd to watch it.
Best of the Rest
There is plenty of singles action on the outside courts too. Fabio Fognini against Benoit Paire is an interesting battle of two complete volcanos while Richard Gasquet, David Goffin, David Ferrer, Elena Vesnina and Timea Bacsinszky are just some of the seeds who will be on show around the grounds.
Betting
Most of my bets on Thursday come in the women’s draw and they get going right from the start of the day as I’m getting stuck into the first match on the Hisense Arena. This will be the eighth time that Ekaterina Makarova will have taken on Sara Errani and the Russian leads their record 4-3 so far but interestingly she leads 3-1 on hard courts.
Makarova’s three have been the last three on hard courts and two of them were in straight sets including last time out in New Haven last year. I fancy we’ll see much of the same here in these fast conditions which should see Makarova’s serve become a real weapon.
Heather Watson has a good win in the first round when she knocked off Sam Stosur and her reward is a clash with the qualifier Jennifer Brady. I said when backing Watson in the first round that she brings good form into the tournament with her and we saw that against Stosur. Credit must go to Brady for getting this far but if Watson wants to climb the rankings this is a match she must win. I think she will win and win by a comfortable enough margin.
Turning to the men’s event I like the look of lengthy sets between Gilles Muller and Milos Raonic. Their only completed meeting came back in 2012 when Muller won 7-5 7-6 and that gives me the thinking that we may well see a tiebreak in the first set here. Both men rely on their serve to get into the match and although Raonic is much improved on the ground neither are particularly great in that department. Muller had two tiebreaks in the first round and these two can begin with another one.
Finally back in the women’s tournament Daria Gavrilova looks a vulnerable seed against the Auckland finalist Ana Konjuh. Gavrilova survived a huge scare by Naomi Broady in the first round and her serve looks there for the taking. Konjuh might not be so easy to repel and I fancy the Croatian to cause a mini upset in their meeting.
Tips
VOID – Back E.Makarova (-4.5 games) to beat S.Errani for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Bwin
Back her here:
Back H.Watson (-2.5 games) to beat J.Brady for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back her here:
Back G.Muller vs M.Raonic – 1st set score 7-6 for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Paddy Power
Back it here:
Back A.Konjuh to beat D.Gavrilova for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
Back her here:
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