The opening day of the Australian Open is a busy day in Melbourne as the first Grand Slam of the year gets underway. We have first round matches in the men’s and the women’s draw on Monday on a busy day at Melbourne Park.
Sometimes we are made to wait to see the big names but some of the biggest of them all are on show on Monday with Rafael Nadal, Caroline Wozniacki, Grigor Dimitrov, Venus Williams and Elina Svitolina among those in action across the day and night sessions.
Rod Laver Arena
Top names are on show on the main court right from the off on Monday as the French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko is first up. She takes on Francesca Schiavone to begin the day session with the big first round match between Venus Williams and Belinda Bencic following them. The ATP World Tour champion Grigor Dimitrov rounds off the day session when he faces Dennis Novak.
Rafael Nadal is the man given the honour of opening the night session. All eyes will be on him but he should breeze past Victor Estrella Burgos and then the home crowds will be right behind Daria Gavrilova when she faces Irina Falconi in the final match of the day.
Margaret Court Arena
The US Open champion Sloane Stephens starts play off on the second court in Melbourne. She faces Shuai Zhang before the home player Matthew Ebden takes on the ever improving American player John Isner. A good looking match between local star Sam Stosur and the Olympic champion Monica Puig rounds off the opening day.
Caroline Wozniacki will kick the night session off when she takes on the Romanian player Mihaela Buzarnescu and then the day concludes with the popular Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in action. He plays the American player Kevin King in the last match of the opening day.
Hisense Arena
Julia Georges will be the first seed on show on the Hisense Arena. She takes on the American player Sofia Kenin with another player from the States following them in the shape of US Open semi-finalist Coco Vandeweghe. The American has a potentially tricky encounter in Timea Babos. Marin Cilic is the final seed to compete in the day session. He plays Vasik Pospisil in what is likely to be a big serving encounter. Nick Kyrgios starts his campaign in the night session when he plays Rogerio Dutra Silva.
Court 2
Magdalena Rybarikova faces Taylor Townsend in a match which might have plenty of mileage in it in the first match on this court with a good looking tussle between Dominika Cibulkova and Kaia Kanepi to follow them. Denis Shapovalov will be looking to win his opener which comes against Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the third game of the day before Jack Sock takes on Yuichi Sugita.
Best of the Rest
Anyone with ground passes on Monday will be well rewarded as there are some big names on the outside courts. Kevin Anderson against Kyle Edmund first up on court 3 should be very good as should Irina Begu against Ekaterina Makarova on Court 7.
Elina Svitolina, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Lucas Pouille, Pablo Carreno Busta, Gilles Muller and Pablo Cuevas are other seeds who are on show on what is a really busy day around the grounds on Monday.
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Men’s Betting
I’m interested in just the one bet in the men’s draw on Monday and it comes in the form of the improving ‘Next Gen’ star Andrey Rublev who takes on David Ferrer. I’ve said plenty of times that in sport I like to be on the improving youngster rather than the fading force and that is going to be my method of attacking this match. Rublev has already made a final in 2018 and is building up a good reputation and decent form and I think he’ll have too much for an energetic but fading Ferrer.
Women’s Betting
There are two matches that I like for bets in the women’s draw. The first of them comes in the second match up on Court 12 where I like Aleksandra Krunic to beat Anett Kontaveit. Krunic is improving fast and while Kontaveit is the higher ranked player I think she might have plateaued. In Brisbane earlier in the year Krunic was going toe to toe with Garbine Muguruza before the Spaniard retired and that is a decent form guide. Kontaveit retired in Sydney last week which is never good so I’m with the Serbian here.
Sam Stosur might be in the latter stages of her career but if she is going to raise her game anywhere it will be here and I think she might have one more big day in her when she takes on the Olympic champion Monica Puig. Puig has flattered to deceive since she won that title against the odds in Rio de Janeiro and could be there for the taking for Stosur. I would suggest that Stosur will have the crowd right behind her and if she can get off to a fast start she can ride it out for a famous win.
Tips
WON – Back A.Rublev to beat D.Ferrer for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with LeoVegas
Back him here:
Back A.Krunic to beat A.Kontaveit for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
Back S.Stosur to beat M.Puig for a 4/10 stake at 2.15 with Betfair
Back them here:
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