The first week of the Australian Open ends on Saturday when the third round of both the singles draws is played out in Melbourne on a day where the action is drawn out but should be of decent quality.
We certainly saw some excellent tennis when the third round began on Friday where there were comfortable wins for Rafael Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov, Marin Cilic, Caroline Wozniacki, and Elina Svitolina. We did lose Jelena Ostapenko but with plenty of big names on show on Saturday we are set for a good day.
Rod Laver Arena
It is the world number one Simona Halep who gets us underway on the Rod Laver Arena on Saturday. The Romanian star takes on Lauren Davis before two young bucks meet as Alexander Zverev takes on the Next Gen Finals winner Hyeon Chung. Home hope Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka close out things in the day session.
The night session on Saturday is tasty. It begins with the match of the women’s draw so far as the former champions Angelique Kerber and Maria Sharapova do battle before Roger Federer is back on court. His opponent is the potentially dangerous Richard Gasquet.
Margaret Court Arena
The US Open finalist Madison Keys is first up on the second main court on Saturday. She takes on Ana Bgodan before the two power serving Czechs Lucie Safarova and Karolina Pliskova meet for a place in the last 16. The day session ends with Dominic Thiem looking to extend his good record against Adrian Mannarino.
The night session on this court sees Novak Djokovic in action first up. He plays Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain before Agnieszka Radwanska takes on Su-Wei Hsieh to round off a busy day inside the MCA.
Hisense Arena
There is a legends doubles match to get us going on the Hisense Arena on Saturday but then three singles matches are on show after that. The first sees Caroline Garcia looking to continue her good form when she plays Aliaksandra Sasnovich before Fabio Fognini plays Julien Benneteau for a place in the last 16. The match of the day in the Hisense Arena is the final one which sees Tomas Berdych taking on Juan Martin del Potro.
Best of the Rest
It is mostly doubles on the outside courts on Saturday but there are a few singles matches dotted around the grounds with the pick of those the one that sees the Lucky Loser Bernarda Pera looking to continue her good run when she takes on Barbora Strycova.
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Men’s Betting
I like two in the men’s draw on Saturday. Dominic Thiem holds a 6-0 head to head lead over Adrian Mannarino and only twice in that time has he dropped a set. After escaping from the depths of defeat in the previous he may think he is free rolling from here on in. Mannarino has done well to come through this far to be fair to him but the power of Thiem seems to overawe him whenever they meet and I don’t see much changing here. Thiem won by seven games when he beat the Frenchman in New York and I think he can beat him by five or more here.
I also like over 38.5 games in the match between Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin del Potro. I think we can say the serve is largely going to dominate in this match and while they might have a chance on the others serve at certain points in the match we are unlikely to see any sets with wholesale breaks so four sets may well be enough to see this one land. It is possible it lands with three sets so I like the over here.
Women’s Betting
There is just the one bet I like in the women’s side of things on Saturday and it comes in the big match to open up the night session. In fairness Angelique Kerber against Maria Sharapova could easily be a final of any tournament and I expect the intensity and the quality of this match to be like such an occasion. The pair haven’t met for three years but their last three meetings have all gone the distance. This very well could too but even if it is done in two they will be closely fought sets so I like over 21.5 games here.
Tips
WON – Back D.Thiem (-4.5 games) to beat A.Mannarino for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back him here:
Back T.Berdych vs J-M.del Potro – Over 38.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with 888sport
Back it here:
Back A.Kerber vs M.Sharapova – Over 21.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back it here:
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