The first Grand Slam of the year gets underway on Monday when the Australian Open final starts off three weeks later than it usually would in these very different times. While the event might be late in starting it certainly gets off and running with a bang.
Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep are just some of the leading lights who will grace the courts of Melbourne Park on what should be an outstanding first day of action.
Rod Laver Arena
It is the current US Open champion Naomi Osaka who gets the show up and running in the main arena on Monday when she faces the perfectly competent Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in what looks a great start to the day. When they are done the legend Serena Williams takes to the court for her first round match against Laura Siegemund before the men’s action on Laver begins as the US Open champion Dominic Thiem meets Mikhail Kukushkin in another decent looking match.
As always we have two matches in the night session on the Rod Laver Arena with the Wimbledon champion Simona Halep beginning the session when she gets her campaign up and running with a clash against the home wildcard Lizette Cabrera. The top seed in the men’s draw Novak Djokovic concludes the day on the RLA when he goes up against the veteran French player in Jeremy Chardy, who is probably past his best a little too much to cause Djokovic a problem.
Margaret Court Arena
There is a pretty decent card on the Margaret Court Arena as well on Monday and that gets underway with Venus Williams on show. The veteran legend goes up against Kirsten Flipkens before the former champion Angelique Kerber steps onto court. She has a first round clash with Bernarda Pera and then the one men’s match in the day session takes place as the US Open finalist Alexander Zverev meets Marcos Giron for a place in the second round.
The 2019 beaten finalist Petra Kvitova gets the honour of starting the night session on Monday evening when the Czech former Wimbledon champion goes up against the Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen. The big men’s match of the first round then takes place on this court to round off a good looking day when the Canadian superstar Denis Shapovalov takes on the Italian ace that many are expecting to reach the top in Jannik Sinner.
John Cain Arena
The card on the third court isn’t the worst you’ll ever see either and it is the former men’s champion Stan Wawrinka who will get it up and running. He has a clash with Pedro Sousa to overcome before the women take centre stage. That sees Misaki Doi going up against Ajla Tomljanovic before the former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu makes her return to top flight tennis when she takes on Mihaela Buzarnescu in a clash which is more than a banana skin for the Canadian. The final match on this court comes in the night session where the home star Nick Kyrgios gets a big stage to take on Frederico Ferreria-Silva.
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1573 Arena
Another Canadian star gets the action up and running on the 1573 Arena as Milos Raonic is first up for a match against Federico Coria. When they are done the current French Open champion Iga Swiatek starts her campaign for successive Grand Slam titles when she meets Arantxa Rus. Ons Jabeur is the third star name up on this court and she has an interesting match against Andrea Petkovic to overcome before the evening match sees two standout men in action when Kei Nishikori meets Pablo Carreno Busta.
Best of the Rest
There is plenty of good action on the outside courts for those who have access to them. The pick of those matches sees Grigor Dimitrov taking on Marin Cilic in a clash of big names. Elsewhere the likes of Marketa Vondrousova, Aryna Sabalenka, Diego Schwartzman, Benoit Paire, Gael Monfils, Alison Riske, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina are just some of the seeded names looking to make it through to round two.
Men’s Betting
I’ll start the tournament slowly and take just the one in the men’s draw which comes in the last match of the day session on the main court when I’m going to take on a potentially rusty Dominic Thiem. Mikhail Kukushkin probably isn’t the most reliable player going around and isn’t the man he was when he was ranked inside the top 50 in the world but I’m still not convinced that he should be getting an 8.5 game start in this match.
Thiem was hoping to play a lot more than the three sets he played in the ATP Cup last week and in two of those sets he was outclassed by Matteo Berrettini. We often see him come out of lengthy breaks slowly as after the first lockdown he lost early in the first tournament in New York. Kukushkin beat Juan Ignacio Londero in one of the warm up events last week and although he lost in the next round to Stan Wawrinka, he went a set up against the Swiss star which shows that he remains competitive. I think we’re pushing it to expect Kukushkin to win this match but keeping a set or two close enough to stay within 8.5 games certainly shouldn’t be beyond him.
Women’s Betting
I’ll go with just the one in the women’s draw as well and while I like Bianca Andreescu I just have to take her on when she is giving up a 5.5 game handicap against Mihaela Buzarnescu. To be fair it isn’t ideal that Buzarnescu went to qualifying last month and failed to make it but she got a lucky loser with all the Covid issues and is here to tell the tale. Again it would be better if she wasn’t wiped out last week but at least she played and that is important to me here.
Andreescu looked the next star in the making in the women’s draw when she won the US Open in 2019 but that was one of the last times we saw her on court. She hasn’t played a competitive match since October 2019 so she is 16 months off the court and pulled out last week. That might be the most significant part of all this. Andreescu is that good she might still win this match, especially against an opponent with no form, but sometimes fitness supersedes form. I’ll take Buzarnescu to stay within five games here.
Tips
WON – Back M.Kukushkin (+8.5 games) to beat D.Thiem for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back M.Buzarnescu (+5.5 games) to beat B.Andreescu for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Boylesports
Back her here:
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